ECON10002: Seminar in Economics and Commerce A

2 assignments, marked out of 25, weighted 25% each (total of 50%)
1 examination (50%)

Note: This is a quota subject that accepts approximately ~25 students. You must have completed a maximum of 50 points and one semester when signing up for this subject. For more information on how to apply, see here on how to sign-up.

Summary
The subject is completely different to what you have done so far in university. It is a subject that focuses on the history of economic thought and political economy from Adam Smith to Keynes, Friedman to Marx. There is also a bit of crossover with Introductory Macroeconomics throughout the semester, which you may or may not find useful when you're doing it simultaneously.

You will get a list of things you will study in the first seminar (note this changes throughout the years, so you might not learn exactly the same things we did), but the this list will get reordered around depending on how the class goes with the topics -- there is a large variety of them. We learnt about Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, Malthus, Say's Law, the Cobb-Douglas production function, the model of the real wage/wage share, Keynesian theories on demand, implications of monopoly power, Walras' Law, Domar's and the Solow-Swan model of growth, and Milton Friedman's explanations on unemployment and inflation.

Seminars
The first thing that's different about this subject is the seminars. Instead of the typical FBE subject structure of 2 x 1 hour lectures and an hour of tutorial, it is 2 x 1.5 hour seminars. At the start of each lesson you'll get a hand-out of what will be covered (which is also posted on LMS), but in a typical seminar what it generally asks with questions about the previous seminar, answering the set questions in the previous seminar, then reading and discussing the reading for that seminar. Sometimes there is additional reading to be done outside of class, either in Heilbroner or again, in the hand-outs. It's best to prepare for the questions because he will go around the class and ask each person to answer a question (although you can refuse to answer if you don't want to, but it's not a good look). Sometimes you'll watch a movie (e.g. about Keynes) instead of the discussions. Robert clearly knows his stuff, is sometimes hilarious, and has been at the university for ages. Of course, because of all of these discussions, it's quite difficult to record, so there is no lecture capture. If you can't go to a seminar, just ask a friend to borrow their notes for the lesson. All of the hand outs are on the LMS anyways, so you're missing out on the answers and the discussion.

Assignments
There are two assignments which can be done in groups of up to four, and both are worth 25%, giving them a 50% weighting. You'll typically receive them a few weeks in advance. You're encouraged to work in groups because these questions require a lot of thinking and discussion to get through. It is compulsory to meet with Robert beforehand in a consulation to discuss the assignment in-person before submission (maybe a week in advance). This means you should complete your assignment ASAP so that you can fine tune it before you bring it in to Robert where he discusses where you may have gone wrong in your reasoning. Just don't write things carelessly because there's been stories of him roasting people These discussions are absolutely helpful because he gives hints and tips on how to do well on the assignment, but he won't help you if you haven't written anything down, so do so. Because of this, it shouldn't be too hard to do well: most, if not all of the class got above 90% combined. In the second 'consultation,' he'll also sit with you and talk about what you want to do in UniMelb and give you subject recommendations based on what you tell him.

Exam
The exam is weighted 50%. Robert will tell you which seminars to focus on for the exam, including their associated hand-outs/readings and related assignment questions. One of the questions on the exam which will be worth about a third, will be based on a reading that is given in the very last seminar, and you will also know that exact question in advance as well (i.e. exactly what will be asked). Prepare for this question, but obviously you can't ask Robert to check it for you because that would be unfair. The exam was very fair and there weren't any nasty tricks or anything like that.

To sum upDefinitely give this subject a go if you're given a chance. This is a subject that really pushes your understanding of economics, and helps keep you informed about the different schools of economic thought, (e.g. the Chicago school of economics) something which isn't covered by the normal economics subjects. The content crossover into Introductory Macroeconomics was definitely useful to understanding how those models were arrived and reached at, as well as their criticisms and critiques instead of just learning what they are and how to use them. When I took this subject, Robert was also teaching Macro as well, and I do recall that Seminar helped us with some of the assignment questions in Macro. Robert is an outstanding lecturer too. We liked Robert so much we bought him a few presents in the final seminar.

Professor Robert Dixon

Sample exams were not given, however they are available in the Bailleu Library.

4 out of 5

"The Worldly Philosophers" by Heilbroner, available at the Co-op. Recommended as readings are required for a full understanding of the subject. More readings will be given to you by Robert, as in he will print them for you.

2 x 1.5 hour seminars weekly

Sem 2, 2016

H1