DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS AT UNIVERSITY OF GHANA
COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
ECON 101: Introduction to Economics I
This course is intended to provide the student with knowledge of: (i) the basic principles of
economics such as the nature and scope of economics, scarcity and opportunity cost , the use of
theories in economics, the market economy and the working of markets , and demand and supply
analysis. (ii) the evolution of schools of thought in economics. It will also introduce the student to
important aspects of the Economy of Ghana and development issues of sub-Saharan Africa.
ECON 102: Introduction to Economics II
This course introduces some of the basic concepts and issues of macroeconomics. They include
topics such as economic growth and overall living standards, national output concepts and
measurement, and the national income accounts of Ghana. Other major macroeconomic variables
such as the price level and inflation, employment and unemployment, government budget deficits,
and balance of payment accounts are also explored. The course also introduces the theory of national
income determination in the short run using expenditure analysis.
ECON 211: Elements Of Economics I (Pre-req: ECON 101)
The Nature and Scope of Economics. The Economic System, Scarcity and Opportunity Costs. Supply
and Demand, Elasticity, concepts, problems and applications. Application of Demand and Supply.
The Economics of Agriculture, the Theory of Household Behaviour. Consumer Behaviour. Theory of
Production. Nature of Cost Curves. Market Structure – Perfect Competition, Monopoly.
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ECON 212: Elements Of Economics II (Pre-requisite: ECON 102)
This course will deal with varieties of macroeconomic thinking, measuring aggregate output, income
and prices, aggregate demand and income determination, fluctuations of aggregate demand, GNP,
fiscal policy, (mechanisms, problems and issues). It will cover topics such as money: what it is and
what it does, the supply of money, monetary policy (mechanisms, problems and issues). Other areas
to be treated include inflation and unemployment, aggregate demand and aggregate supply, inflation
and unemployment, the gains from trade, international exchange, trade policy (mechanics, problems
and issues), economic development and world poverty.
ECON 213: Elements Of Mathematics For Economists
This course will cover fundamental techniques such as (i) basic algebraic procedures, simple and
simultaneous equations; (ii) functions, types, and graphical representation. (iii) simple economic
applications and simple market models; introduction to calculus, including (i) concepts of Slope
and continuity, (ii) meaning of derivatives and differentiation, (iii) techniques of differentiation
and rules, (iv) applications to economic, phenomena, comparative statistics, elasticities,
propensities, input-output models. It will also look at functions in one variable, including (i)
maximum and minimum points, (ii) second order conditions, and (iii) applications. Functions of
two or more variables such as (i) partial derivatives (ii) determination of maximum and minimum
points, (iii) second order conditions (iv) constrained maximization, the Lagrangean Technique,
First and Second Order Conditions, applications, profit maximization and consumer choice
problems, input and output demand functions, cost functions and introduction to integral calculus,
(ii) techniques and rules of integration (iii) applications. Investment, saving functions and growth
models will also be treated.
ECON 214: Elements Of Statistics For Economists
We will look at the scope of statistics, collection, classification, tabulations and presentation of data.
Frequency distributions, graphical presentation and the lorenz curve will be given attention. Measures
of location, dispersion and skewness will also be examined. Probability, sets, experiments, events,
sample space, conditional probability, statistical independence, random variable and elementary
treatment of distributions, inclding Binomial, Poisson and Chi-square distributions will be covered.
Simple Random sampling, the central limit theorem and Normal distribution will also be treated.
We will also focus on estimation and tests of significance, including correlation coefficient, rank
correlational point estimation, biasedness, consistency and Type I and II errors as well as Simple
linear regression, tests of hypotheses concerning means, proportions, variances, significance levels
and t and f tests. Confidence intervals for means, association and contingency tables will also be
looked at.
ECON 215: Economy of Ghana I
National Income Accounting, Income, expenditure and Product approaches to estimating national
income; national income as a measure of welfare; problems and methods of comparing income
between countries and in one country overtime. Structure of the Economy; changes in Ghana’s
Economic Structure, Theories of Structural Changes. Growth performance of the aggregate economy;
accounting for growth. Sectors, growth performance and structure; agriculture, manufacturing, mining
and quarrying and construction, services, etc. Population, labour force and Economic Growth, Labour
Force Participation, Unemployment and Employment Migration.
ECON 216: Economy of Ghana II
International Trade: Balance of payments – measuring and nature; foreign trade statistics, policies to
deal with balance of payments deficits, economic aid. Inflation and Growth; Price Index; Ghana’s
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Consumer Prices Index; Price Policy; Relationship between Inflation and Growth. Monetary sector;
the Financial Institutions; Monetary policy in historical perspective, Government and the Economy;
Role of government in the economy; the government’s budget – sources of revenue, public
expenditure; financing budget deficits. Planning: A comparative study of planning in Ghana.
ECON 311: Microeconomic Theory I (Pre-req: EC0N 211 and ECON 213)
Economic model-building. Positive and normative economics. Micro and Macro. Comparative Static
and dynamic models. Consumer Behaviour and Demand Theory, Cardinal utility approach to demand
theory: law of diminishing marginal utility, consumer equilibrium, Marshal’s derivation of law of
demand. Ordinal utility approach: indifference curve analysis; principle of diminishing marginal rate
of substitution; consumer equilibrium, price consumption curve; income consumption curve; income
effect; substitution effect; price effect; inferior good, Giffen good. Revealed preference approach:
brief treatment. Demand function; individual and market demand schedules and curves; ceteris
paribus assumptions; elasticity of demand; price elasticity of demand; income elasticity of demand;
price and marginal revenue; cross-elasticities. Theory of Production: Production function: Total,
average, and marginal product. 3-stage analysis. Isoquants. Marginal rate of technical substitution.
Isocost curves. Relationships between costs and inputs. Expansion path. Social costs and private
costs. Short-run cost theory: fixed, variable, total, average and marginal cost. Long-run costs. Cost
elasticity. Economies and diseconomies of scale. Theory of the Firm: Perfect Competition: Basic
concepts, definitions, assumptions: the firm, market, product homogeneity, perfect knowledge, profit
maximization, free entry. Short-run equilibrium of firm and industry. Long-run equilibrium of the
firm. Constant and increasing costs industries.
ECON 312: Microeconomic Theory II (Prerequisite: ECON 311)
Monopoly: Definition and assumption of model. Demand curve under monopoly. Short-run
equilibrium. Long-run equilibrium. Price discrimination. Monopolistic Competition. Meaning:
product differentia-tion, many sellers. Pricing decision under monopolistic competition; short-run
and long-run equilibrium. excess Capacity. Oligopoly: Concepts, Duopoly models. Kinked demand
curve. Theory of games (brief introduction). Brief discussion of behavioural theories of the firm.
Theory of Distribution. Marginal productivity theory in perfectly competitive markets; demand for a
factor of production, supply of a variable factor; product exhaustion; distribution and relative factor
share, elasticity of substitution; technological progress. Modifications of the theory – introduction of
imperfections in product and factor markets; monopoly and monopsony; trade unions. Theory of rent:
Ricardian treatment. Modern treatment – derived demand, transfer costs, opportunity costs quasi-rent.
Capital and interest: as an application of marginal productivity theory. Determination of rate of
interest by supply and demand. Welfare Economics: Pareto optimality; optimum conditions of
production and exchange. The role of welfare economics in modern economic analysis.
ECON 313: Macroeconomic Theory I (Pre-req: ECON 212 and ECON 213)
Introduction: Macroeconomic variable; functional relationships and parameters; national income and
national product accounting; circular flow of income and spending. Classical Macroeconomics: Say’s
law of market; the quantity theory of money; saving, investment and the rate of interest to the classical
full-employment equilibrium; Wicksell’s formulation: monetary and fiscal policy in classical
economics. Keynesian Macroeconomics: The consumption function; the multiplier; simple Keynesian
model; liquidity preference and the speculative demand for money; the liquidity trap; extensions of the
simple Keynesian model, government – expenditure multiplier; balanced-budget multiplier;
investment and foreign-trade multiplier; policy implications of the Keynesian model. Aggregate
Demand and Supply Curves. Theory of Inflation: Demand-pull and cost-push inflation; the dynamics
of inflation; hyper-inflation and creeping inflation; Phillips curve; controls of inflation.
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ECON 314: Macroeconomic Theory II (Prerequisite: ECON 313)
Consumption Demand. Absolute Income, Life Cycle, Permanent income and Relative Income
Hypothesis; Theory of Investment. Motivation of investment; determination of `present’ value of
investment; marginal efficiency of capital; acceleration principle. Combination of the Classical and
Keynesian Models. The equality of saving and investment; introduction of supply and demand for
money; the Hicks-Hansen analysis and synthesis; flexible wages and employment; critical evaluation
of the Keynesian model. The Demand for Money and Money Supply. Theory of Economic Growth.
The Classical growth model; Harrod-Domar growth model; policy implications. External Trade.
Theory of Economic Policy
ECON 315: Applied Mathematics For Economists
(Prerequisite: ECON 213 and ECON 214)
Review of basic mathematical concepts; derivations, rules for differentiation, integral, calculus,
difference and differential equations. Mathematical treatment of the theory of consumer behaviour;
axioms of consumer behaviour; utility functions, budget lines; consumer utility maximization;
derivation of demand curves; priced and income elasticities; complements and substitutes; normal
inferior and Giffen good. Mathematical treatment of production theory. Production functions: Cobb-
Douglas, Constant Elasticity of Substitution (CES), and Homogeneous production functions.
Derivation of the isoquant, the expansion path, and the elasticity of substitution; producer profit
maximization. The applications of difference and differential equations to the analyses of economic
fluctuations and the `cobweb’ model.
ECON 316: Applied Statistics For Economists (Prerequisite: ECON 213 and ECON 214)
Review of probability distributions of importance to economic problems: normal, binomial, Poisson.
Multi-variate distributions. Construction of index numbers: Time series analysis. Basic design of
questionnaires and analysis of variance of experimental (or survey date-applications to economic data.
Tests of significance. Correlation and regression (simple and multiple) analyses. Economic
interpretation of regression coefficients of Demand and Supply functions. Derivation of elasticities of
demand and supply. Economic policy implications.
ECON 317: Economic Development And Growth I (Pre-req: Econ 211 and 212)
This course is designed to introduce students to some major growth models (both traditional and
contemporary) and cross cutting issues such as gender and sustainable development, poverty and
inequality. The course is also designed to expose students to issues such as the relationship
between Aid debt and growth and trade and growth.
ECON 318: Economic Development And Growth II (Pre-req: Econ 211 and 212)
This course is the continuation the exploration of Economic growth and development which
began in the first semester. It focuses on specific problems faced by less developed countries. In
this course issues such as high population, urbanization and rural migration and education are
considered.
ECON 441: Economic Theory I (Micro) (Pre-req: ECON 311 and 312.
A good background in Quantitative Techniques)
The nature of Economic Theory. Theory of Consumer Behaviour and firm behaviour treated as
maximization problems under given constraints. General equilibrium analysis under different market
situations with the conditions for an optimum solution expressed mathematically. Introduction to
welfare economics and economics of socialism.
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ECON 442: Economic Theory II (Macro) (Pre-req: ECON 313 and 314.
A good background in Quantitative Techniques)
National Income Accounting Revisited. National Income Determination. Harrod – Domar growth
models and macro-models using difference equations; growth in the context of adjustment; growth
and technological change. Theory of Unemployment and Inflation. Mercantilism and the transition
from feudalism to capitalism. The classical school. The Marxian theory of capitalist development.
Economic historicism. The marginal approach. The neo-classical model. Keynes and the impact of his
thought on economic analyses and policy. Modern trends of thought.
ECON 443: Econometrics I (Prerequisite: ECON 315 and 316)
The Meaning and Purpose of Econometrics: Econometrics of Demand. Econometric demand
equations. Theory of the disturbance term. Cross-sectional analysis, and Engel curves. Econometric
Methods: Least Square (LS), Tests of original hypotheses, and analysis of residuals. A battery of
statistical and economic tests of the economic and statistical hypotheses of the equation of relation; coefficient
of correlation, determination, variation; t-tests; test for randomness or serial correlation of the
disturbances, of graphing the residuals, and by the Durbin-Watson ‘d’ statistic. The general linear
equation of relation with many variables estimated by classical least square, and using matrix
methods. The sample error co-variance matrix of estimated parameters. Econometrics of the Firm and
of Supply.
ECON 444: Econometrics II (Prerequisite: ECON 315 and 316)
Models Embodying Many Equations: Least squares bias in the estimation of parameters in
simultaneous equations systems. Elementary methods of attacking this bias problem. Indirect Least
Squares (ILS); Instrumental Variables (IV); Two Stage Least Squares (TL); Rules for testing
identification. Laboratory exercise involves a simple three equation model of the economy of Ghana,
in which one over-identified three variable equation is estimated by LS and TL. The TL result is put
through all of the tests. Miscellaneous Econometric Problems: Collinearity of explanatory variables.
Delayed responses and lagged variables. Estimation when disturbances are serially correlated. Use of
artificial or shift variable (dummy variables). Testing for change of structure – the Chow Test.
ECON 445: Cost Benefit Analysis
This course introduces students to the mechanics of Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA). The course is
designed to expose students to the keys issue in CBA including measurements issues, methods for
evaluating projects and criteria for choosing between alternative projects. It is expected that
students will be adequately equipped with the skills needed for the completion of the project work
at the end of the course.
ECON 446: Project Work (Prerequisite: ECON445)
Students are expected to write a project based on the analytical skills acquired in ECON445.
ECON 447: International Economics I (Pre-req: a good background in
Microeconomics)
This is an introductory course in international economics. It is designed to introduce students to
international trade theory and provide a basis for understanding trade policies. The course covers
major theories of trade (Ricardian, Hecksher-Ohlin and modern trade theories) as well as the
relationship between trade and economic growth, with a particular focus on the role of trade
policy.
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ECON 448: International Economics II
This course is complementary to Econ 447 and aims to teach tools for understanding international
financial flows for a complete understanding of the workings of the external sector of the
economy. The main areas covered include balance of payments, exchange rate determination and
policy making in an open economy. Topical issues in the international monetary system, aid, debt
and foreign direct investment are also discussed.
ECON 449: Industrial Economics I (Prerequisite: ECON 311 and 312)
The goal of this course is to introduce students to the structure and organization of firms in an
industry. Welfare implications of output and price determination under major market structures
(monopoly and perfect competition) are briefly discussed. Special emphasis is also given to the
determinants and measurement of industrial market structures.
ECON 452: Industrial Economics II (Prerequisite: ECON 449)
This course continues the discussion of the structure and organization of industries with a
discussion of strategic behavior of firms and regulation of firms. In terms of the former, the issues
discussed include coordination in oligopoly markets and price and non-pricing competitive
behavior. Under regulation, attention will be paid to anti-trust policies, intellectual property rights
and strategic industrial policy.
ECON 453: Public Finance I (Prerequisite: ECON 311, 312, 313 and 314)
This course is designed to introduce students to issues such as public goods and externalities and
government failure. In addition, issues on public expenditure such as types of public expenditure,
components of public expenditure, cause of public expenditure growth and models on public
expenditure are also considered.
ECON 454: Public Finance II (Prerequisite: ECON 453)
This course is structured in such a way as to introduce students to the issues on taxation. Special
emphasis is given to issues such as characteristics of a good system, partial and general
equilibrium analysis of the impact of different categories of taxes on consumers and producers in
an economy and the analysis of public debt. In discussing these issues, emphasis is placed on
empirical evidence from Ghana.
ECON 457: Agricultural Economics I
(Pre-req: A good background in Economic Theory)
This course focuses on the economic issues of agriculture in developing countries. It looks at the
structure and organization of agriculture in developing countries and the attendant problems for
mechanization, the agricultural production function, pricing of agricultural inputs and outputs. The
course also place special emphasis on technology adoption in agriculture.
ECON 458: Agricultural Economics II (Prereq: ECON 457)
This course continues the discussion on agriculture in developing countries with a focus on the
main issues and problems of agriculture and transformation as well as a discussion of policy
measures to address these problems. The main problems discussed are land tenure systems and
land reforms, marketing of agricultural products (with particular attention paid to international
commodity pricing of agricultural products), financing for agriculture and external constraints to
agricultural policy.
311
ECON 467: Economic Planning I (Prerequisite: ECON 311, ECON 312 ECON 313 and
314)
This course focuses on introductory issues in economic planning. It begins with the political
economy debate on the relative roles of the state and market in a developing country setting. This
is followed by a comprehensive discussion of the various issues in planning: types of planning ,
the rationale for planning, the planning process, institutional frameworks, challenges of planning.
ECON 468: Economic Planning II (Prerequisite: ECON 467)
This is a continuation of the first semester’s course. It extends the discussion on the planning
process and on economic planning in Ghana and other developing countries. The course will
further examine differences and similarities among the various plans and do an evaluation of each
plan.
ECON 469: Labour Economics I (Prerequisite: ECON 311 and 312)
This course is designed to enable students gain a thorough understanding of the functioning of
labour markets. It focuses mainly on wage determination, the demand for and supply of labour.
The course also exposes students to theories of human capital development, i.e., the return to
human capital investment and efficiency wage models.
ECON 472: Labour Economics II (Prerequisite: ECON 469)
The course focuses mainly on the labour market in Ghana. The course will begin with a discussion
of the structure and patterns of employment (unemployment and underemployment) in Ghana. The
major labour market institutions and elements of industrial relations are also discussed. The course
gives attention issues and problems of the labour market and industrial relations in Ghana (in
particular, labour market discrimination) as well as labour market policies.
ECON 473: Money And Banking I (Pre-req: ECON 313 and ECON 314)
This is an introductory course in monetary theory. It begins with the development of modern
money from a barter system. It also focuses on the detailed treatment of the money market in a
closed economy with an examination of various theories of the demand for money and
measurements and determinants of money supply. Other areas covered include the terms structure
of interest rates and money in the open economy.
ECON 474: Money And Banking II (Pre-req: ECON 473
This course builds on the examination of monetary theory which began in the first semester, with
a focus on the role of financial institutions and the conduct of monetary policy. Financial
intermediation, with emphasis on the role of formal financial institutions and the informal/semi
formal and microfinance institutions, is treated in detail. The course also discuses Ghana’s
financial system and monetary policy experience.