Economics 388

This is a module in applied economics and does not form part of Economics taken as a major subject. It includes Applied Labour Economics, Econometrics and applications from Microeconomics (applied Management Economics). This course is particularly useful as a precursor to graduate studies in Economics, in terms of both the quantitative skills and the course content. It builds technical skills and also allows an opportunity to analyse in greater depth two areas of application, viz. Management Economics and Labour Economics.

Introductory Econometrics exposes students to the basic tools of Econometric analysis applied to macro-economic time series data and makes them familiar with the use of the E-views statistical package. This is additionally also useful to develop a better understanding of macro-economic relationships and how to model them.

Labour Economics deals with some central policy concerns in South Africa. It consists of an introduction to Labour Economic theory and to South African labour market issues, while much attention is devoted to developing skills in analysing micro-level (labour market) datasets, e.g. estimating earnings functions or the determinants of labour force participation and employment.

Management Economics analyses some important issues confronted in management at the firm level and develops the tools to analyse these.

Prerequisite Pass module (PP): Economics 214

Prerequisite module (P): Economics 244

Corequisite module (C): Economics 318

Continuous assessment

Credits: 24

Classes per week: 2 lectures, 2 tutorials

Module convenor: Mr Le R Burrows (first semester)

Module convenor:  Prof AP de Villiers (second semester)

Work programme: Introductory Econometrics

Work programme: Labour Economics

Work programme: Management Economics