HOW MONEY, DEBT & TAX MADE THE MODERN ECONOMY in Fall 2018 (EC1091FB12)

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Courses on different and emerging topics in the discipline, enriching the present course offerings. These classes are taught by permanent or visiting faculty.

Course Master: 
TOPICS IN ECONOMICS (EC1091)
Term: 
Fall 2018
Discipline: 
EC (Economics)
Credits: 
4 credits
Type: 
GE110
Level: 
Undergraduate
Can be taken twice for credit?: 
Yes
Exam Date: 
Thursday, December 20, 2018 - 15:30
Pre-requisites: 
None
Co-requisites: 
None

Professor(s)

Maria Bach

Notes

How Money, Debt & Tax Made the Modern Economy:


This course is an introduction to key economic concepts and instruments that make up our modern economy. The course will focus on money, debt and tax in an attempt to understand when these things were invented and why. Our exploration will help us understand how our economy works and doesn’t work. We will explore how money, debt and tax came about through an historical analysis of old and new texts, some well-known, others hardly at all. The kinds of questions you will be able to answer by the end of the course include: why does money, of all things, have the ability to exchange all goods? When was money first invented and how does it help our economy function? How can you just invent a new kind of money like a cryptocurrency? What is debt and what role does it play in society? Is debt good, bad or something else? When and why were taxes invented? Do taxes keep society together and if so how?


Learning Outcomes

  1. Understand various functions of money, debt and tax in society.
  2. Evaluate different narratives on the evolution of money, debt and tax.
  3. Explain basic concepts of economics: opportunity cost, competition, inequality, marginal analysis, productivity, globalisation, division of labour, institutions, aggregate demand, poverty, business, profits and losses, revenues, wages, costs of production, foreign aid, trade.
  4. Compare and contrast different interpretations of the concepts listed above.
  5. Students will enhance their information literacy, acquiring an understanding of how information is produced, and discovering how to evaluate, create and use it effectively and ethically. Students will develop an awareness of the conversational nature of scholarship and be able to identify appropriate secondary sources to conduct effective research.
  6. Students will develop public speaking and presentation skills in order to participate effectively and appropriately in academic discussion and as community leaders, in a professional and engaging manner that can convey complex information.
  7. Students will be able to appreciate place as a site of knowledge, to interrogate the multiple meanings of place and develop a more informed and sensitive understanding of interactions between people and their physical environment.
  8. Students will learn to formulate questions that can lead to greater learning and productive individual and group research projects.
  9. Students will strengthen the concrete skills and aptitudes to be successful at AUP and beyond, such as study skills and time management, the mindsets that lead to lifelong learning, and desired classroom behaviors and interpersonal skills.

Book List

Schedule

Start Date: 
Monday, September 10, 2018
End Date: 
Friday, December 21, 2018
RoomDayStart TimeEnd Time
SD-3
Monday
16:55
18:15
SD-3
Thursday
16:55
18:15