39 hod., optionally

1. Basic principles of economy – decisions of subjects, organization of economic activity, economy as a science, the economic cycle, limits to what can be produced, examples of the different opinions of economists and the causes of these opinions. 2. Demand – law of demand and the behaviour of consumers, factors influencing the decisions of buyers, the demand curve. 3. Supply – law of supply and the behaviour of companies, law of diminishing marginal returns, costs and income of a company, economic and accountable profit, an example from the cultural environment – the economy of a theatre. 4. Market equilibrium – market efficiency, market equilibrium, consumer and producer surplus, example of costs, taxing. 5. Monopoly – causes of market imperfection, appearance of a monopoly, consequences of a monopoly, ways of solution, price discrimination. 6. Externality, ownership rights, asymmetrical information – market failure, causes and results of the existence of externalities, common pool resources and the free rider problem, consequences of information asymmetry. 7. Unemployment – causes of the existence of unemployment, consequences of unemployment, forms, ways of measuring unemployment and their problems, international comparison. 8. Gross domestic product – ways of measuring the performance of an economy, problems of the GDP aggregate, nominal and real product, domestic and national product, human development index, international comparison. 9. Inflation – measurement of living costs, causes of inflation, types, ways of measuring inflation, consequences of inflation, international comparison, relationship between inflation and unemployment. 10. Economic growth = economic growth and living standards, productivity determiners, role of the state, trends and cycles, phases of the economic cycle, reasons for the fluctuation of GDP, development of selected economies in the 20th century. 11. Export and import – open and closed economies, reasons for the existence of international trade, the trade balance, absolute and comparative advantage, arguments for the limitation of international trade, trading policy, exchange rate policy, integration. 12. Economic policy – the principle and aims of economic policy, areas of economic policy, bearers of economic policy, public and private sector, economic policy limits, influence of the media, model of deputisation in economic policy. 13. A current topic.