HS101 Introduction to Economics (Autumn 2017-18)

Instructor Name: Tara Shaw, Neha Gupta

Course Type: Theory

Pre-requisites: None

Course Content: Microeconomics 1st half sem

Macroeconomics 2nd half sem

Other topics covered: First half 

Chapters from Mankiw (3-8,13-16)
Second half
Chapters from Mankiw (23-30)
Short run macro (Keynesian macro) from Fischer covered till IS-LM model

Books: N. Gregory Mankiw- Principles of Economics

Dornbusch & Fischer- Principles of Macroeconomics 

Lectures: First half-

Taught on the blackboard by Prof. Shaw. Very good lectures, he answered doubts very well. Used good examples. Insulted/Mocked people that came late but he taught well.
Second half-
Lectures were fast-paced, the teacher used slides and covered about 2 chapters of Mankiw in 3 hrs. The lectures sometimes contained extra information which wouldn't be covered in the books but the books on their own are quite good and are considered to be classics.

Assignments: None

Exams and Grading:2 quizzes, midsem and endsem. The quizzes were easy, the midsem and endsem challenging, the endsem had many MCQ's which made it longer. The grading was fair in my opinion.
 
Online material: Didn't use anything else. Books were sufficient.

Follow-up Courses: HS department offers many courses in economics. Go through them before registration.

Pro-tips: Definitely read the books and try to stay awake during the second half of the course which is taught using slides. The first half is worth attending because it is taught on the blackboard and he teaches quite fast and it saves our time than to do it yourself later by just reading the notes. Lecture slides are sufficient for quizzes and MCQ's but books help in answering subjective questions in midsem and endsem.

Personal Comments: I really liked the course. Did not know anything about this field previously and it was eye-opening. The books give a lot of case studies and you can really see the applications of the effectiveness of the simple models used to try to describe market, consumer, and the economy's behaviour. 

Respondent: Sahil Adane