Economics For Managers [25/03 - 30/04]

The Economics for Managers module is one of the final entry-level core subject I will be taking for my MBA course. This is also the last module I will be taking this quarter and I will be having a 2 months break after the final exams. An evaluation so far - I have completed 5 subjects to date since joining the MBA program a year ago.

I have taken an economics module during my first year in NUS. Some of my classmates have taken economics for their 'A' levels, giving them a good foundation. I have pretty much forgotten all that I have learnt during the 3 months in NUS.

The lecturer for the course is Mr David Murphy. He's a truly amazing lecturer. I find him to be very humorous. During the 2 intensives with Mr David Murphy, everyone of us really have great fun together.



Course Evaluation

There are 4 evaluation components to this subject. There are the 2 assessments during the 2 intensives (10% each), follow by a group project submission (30%) and finally the final exams (50%). For the group project, we got overseas organised early before the start of the first intensive. Our group leader is Lionel, who is a very capable and well-organised leader.

Content

As with all basic economics course, it started off with the micro-economics aspects and thereafter move on to macro-economics. The recent Global Financial Crisis has been explained to us from an economics standpoint and we were taught to evaluate the decisions made by the different governments with regards to the crisis. The Singapore context is frequently used which is different from most western developed countries on how fiscal and monetary policies were used.

On the micro-economics end, we studied the demand, supply, elasticity, impact of tax and policies, monopoly and so on related cases. In the macro-economics, the important areas are the GDP, aggregate demand, supply, fiscal, monetary policies and so on. Lionel told me a few times that he find economics to be a very applicable subject.

As with typical MBA programme, there are regular class participation and discussion by the students. After every topic, there will be a tutorial to apply the concepts learnt.

Transition

While taking this subject, I was undergoing a transition in my career. I left my previous company on the 20th April (Wednesday) directly after the 2nd intensive and joined my next company before my exams on the 26th April (Tuesday). As such, I only have the weekday evenings to study for my exams. Previously, I will usually take a day leave to have a concentrated study.