Content (Syllabus outline)
Key economic principles:
Economic interpretation of interactions within the society; economics as a science – key concepts (microeconomics, macroeconomics)
Elements and subjects of economic process:
Opportunity costs, principles of absolute and comparative advantage, gains from specialisation and trade.
Production factors in agriculture; production function and production process; economics of production choice, economics of consumption choice.
Functioning of markets:
Elements of neoclassical economic theory (supply, demand, market equilibrium); determinants of supply and demand; illustration of basic rules of demand and supply by cases from agricultural markets; coefficients of elasticity and their application.
Market equilibrium and impacts on market equilibrium change; revealing and setting of equilibrium prices; price dynamics and price trends on agricultural markets. Market failures and non-competitive market structures; agricultural markets in reality.
Externalities and public goods:
Types of externalities; private and social economic optimum; key principles of management with externalities; public goods – key characteristics and the role of the state.
Economic theory underlying the concept of multifunctional agriculture.
National economy and the role of the state.
Main concepts in macroeconomics, key principles of national economy. The state as a regulative mechanism (its status in economic and social relationships, principles of public interventions in national economy, public finances).
Prerequisites
Conditions for inclusion in the work:
Enrolment in the appropriate academic year.
Conditions for performing study obligations
To enter the final exam, the tutorials exam and seminar paper have to be graded positive.