BSc Economics and Business Economics
Each module placed on the atlas: the big questions, schools and fields it touches.
Choosing this degree adds modules to the map and to each big question, school, field and debate page. Your choice is saved in this browser.
Period 1
to
Introduction to Economics
The big picture: how markets, governments and whole economies work.
Key concepts
Opportunity cost, supply and demand, elasticity, comparative advantage, GDP.
Big questions
- i · Choice: How do people and firms make choices?
- ii · Markets: How do markets coordinate millions of choices, and when do they fail?
- iii · Growth: Why do some economies grow rich while others stay poor?
- iv · Cycles: Why do economies boom and bust, and can policy smooth the ride?
- v · Who gets what: Who gets what, and is it fair?
- vi · Rules: What rules and limits shape the economy?
Schools
Fields
Try this
When the lecturer says “economists believe…”, ask: which economists, and what evidence?
Read alongside
CORE Econ's free textbook The Economy, alongside the course text.
Maths for Economics
The language most economic models are written in.
Key concepts
Derivatives, optimisation, Lagrange multipliers. Tip: every derivative in economics is a “marginal something”.
Big questions
Try this
For each technique, ask which economic idea it lets you express. Lagrange multipliers turn out to be prices.
Read alongside
Rodrik's Economics Rules, for why economists use models at all.
Period 2
to
Includes the winter break, 21 December to 1 January, when there is no teaching.
Microeconomics
How individuals and firms decide, and when markets work or fail.
Key concepts
Consumer and producer theory, market structures, game theory, market failure, information problems.
Big questions
Schools
Try this
For each model, list its assumptions and ask which one behavioural economics would challenge.
Read alongside
Harford's The Undercover Economist for intuition; Thaler's Misbehaving for the critique.
Institutions and Welfare
How rules and organisations shape welfare, and what “welfare” should mean.
Key concepts
Pareto efficiency, welfare theorems, externalities, public goods, institutions as rules of the game, wellbeing beyond GDP.
Big questions
Schools
Fields
Try this
Compare GDP with the CBS Monitor of Well-being for the Netherlands. What does each show that the other misses?
Read alongside
Acemoglu and Robinson's Why Nations Fail; Ostrom's work on the commons.
Accounting and Finance
How firms record value, and how financial markets price it.
Key concepts
Financial statements, time value of money, risk and return, efficient markets, bank runs.
Big questions
Schools
Try this
Fama and Shiller shared a Nobel while disagreeing about bubbles. Which evidence would decide between them?
Read alongside
Shiller's Irrational Exuberance; the Bank of England's 2014 article on money creation.
Period 3
to
Macroeconomics
Growth, inflation, unemployment and the policies that target them.
Key concepts
Aggregate demand and supply, the Phillips curve, expectations, monetary and fiscal policy, DSGE.
Big questions
Schools
Try this
Run the 2021–23 inflation through each school in the Compare tab. Which story fits the euro-area data best?
Read alongside
Ha-Joon Chang's Economics: The User's Guide, chapters on schools.
The European Perspective
The euro, the single market and EU economic governance.
Key concepts
Optimum currency areas, the ECB, fiscal rules, the euro crisis, competition policy.
Big questions
Schools
Debate
Try this
Why did the ECB's 2012 promise calm markets when years of austerity had not?
Read alongside
Tooze's Crashed for the crisis narrative.
Statistics
How to tell signal from noise, and cause from correlation.
Key concepts
Distributions, hypothesis testing, regression, p-values, confounders.
Try this
For every regression, ask what else could explain the pattern. See the Methods tab.
Read alongside
Angrist and Pischke's Mastering 'Metrics, when you want the next step.
Period 4
to
Strategy and Organisation
Why firms exist, how they compete and how they organise people.
Key concepts
Transaction costs, game theory, competitive strategy, incentives and contracts, organisational design.
Big questions
Schools
Fields
Try this
Coase asked why firms exist at all if markets are efficient. Use his answer on a company you know.
Read alongside
Coase's 1937 paper “The Nature of the Firm” is short and readable.
Elective
Your first chance to steer.
Key concepts
Pick by what pulled you in this year: development, environment, cities, finance, labour.
Fields
Try this
Which debate in this atlas did you care most about? Choose the elective that lets you dig into it.
Read alongside
Banerjee and Duflo's Good Economics for Hard Times, to see empirical work in action.
This is a summary, not the official course catalogue. Check your university's own timetable for dates and rooms.