Course

Economics & Government

Faculty
Commerce & Business Administration
Department
Economics
Course code
ECON 1104
Credits
3.00
Semester length
15 Weeks X 4 Hours per Week = 60 Hours
Max class size
35
Method(s) of instruction
Lecture
Typically offered
To be determined

Overview

Course description
Economics and Government examines the role played by government in a modern economy such as Canada’s. Economic analysis will be employed to identify the areas where market determined outcomes are efficient and where government intervention may improve upon the market determined outcomes. Economics underlies many of the decisions made by government and the economic way of thinking can help politicians make these decisions more reasonably. The course will address a number of issues including social insurance, externalities, public education and healthcare, income inequality and poverty, tax policy, inflation and monetary policy, and issues surrounding the government debt.
Course content

This course will examine a number of topics, including:

  1. The role and size of government in the Canadian economy.
  2. The invisible hand and markets in allocating society’s resources.
  3. Market failure and a role for government.
  4. Externalities and government intervention.
  5. Social insurance.
  6. Public vs private education.
  7. Health Care policy.
  8. Inequality, poverty, and the role of the state.
  9. Financing government: tax policy
  10. Demographic trends and their impact on the delivery of social services.
  11. The National Debt and Fiscal Policy
  12. Inflation and Monetary Policy
Learning activities

Lecture and tutorial.

Means of assessment
Paper  0% - 20%
Assignments  0% - 30%
Term Tests  0% - 20%
Midterm Exams        20% - 40%
Final Exams 20% - 40%
Total        100%

Students may conduct research as part of their coursework in this class. Instructors for the course are responsible for ensuring that student research projects comply with College policies on ethical conduct for research involving humans, which can require obtaining Informed Consent from participants and getting the approval of the Douglas College Research Ethics Board prior to conducting the research.

Learning outcomes

In this course the student will:

  1. Demonstrate knowledge of the role played by government in Canada’s economy;
  2. Explain how market determined outcomes lead to an efficient allocation of resources;
  3. Examine the conditions where government intervention may improve upon market determined outcomes;
  4. Analyze demographic trends and their impact upon public policy;
  5. Explain the economic issues facing government in the provision of public services such as education and health care;
  6. Analyze the role of government in dealing with income inequality and poverty;
  7. Examine tax policy and the financing of government;
  8. Evaluate macroeconomic policy issues such as economic growth, inflation, unemployment
Textbook materials

Textbooks and Materials to be Purchased by Students

Course pack of collected readings.

Requisites

Prerequisites

No prerequisite courses.

Corequisites

No corequisite courses.

Equivalencies

Courses listed here are equivalent to this course and cannot be taken for further credit:

  • No equivalency courses

Course Guidelines

Course Guidelines for previous years are viewable by selecting the version desired. If you took this course and do not see a listing for the starting semester / year of the course, consider the previous version as the applicable version.

(Current)

Course Transfers

These are for current course guidelines only. For a full list of archived courses please see https://www.bctransferguide.ca

Institution Transfer details for ECON 1104
Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) KPU ECON 1XXX (3)
Simon Fraser University (SFU) SFU ECON 104 (3)
Thompson Rivers University (TRU) TRU ECON 1XXX (3)
University of British Columbia - Okanagan (UBCO) UBCO ARTS_O 1st (3)
University of British Columbia - Vancouver (UBCV) UBCV ARTS_V 1st (3)
University of Northern BC (UNBC) UNBC ECON 1XX (3)
University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) UFV ECON 1XX (3)
University of Victoria (UVIC) UVIC ECON 1XX (1.5)
Vancouver Island University (VIU) VIU ECON 1st (3)

Course Offerings

Winter 2025