Unit ECONOMIC PRINCIPLES
- Course
- Mechanical engineering
- Study-unit Code
- 70026680
- Curriculum
- Gestionale
- Teacher
- Andrea Fronzetti Colladon
- Teachers
-
- Andrea Fronzetti Colladon
- Hours
- 54 ore - Andrea Fronzetti Colladon
- CFU
- 6
- Course Regulation
- Coorte 2020
- Offered
- 2020/21
- Learning activities
- Caratterizzante
- Area
- Ingegneria gestionale
- Academic discipline
- ING-IND/35
- Type of study-unit
- Obbligatorio (Required)
- Type of learning activities
- Attività formativa monodisciplinare
- Language of instruction
- Italian
- Contents
- Foundations of microeconomics and investment analysis. Introduction to creativity and innovation management
- Reference texts
- - Campisi, D. & Costa, R. Economia applicata all'ingegneria. Carocci editore.
- Pindyck, R. & Rubinfeld, D. Microeconomics (8th ed. or newer), Prentice Hall International.
- La Bella, A. & Capece, G. Manuale di Direzione d'Impresa, Franco Angeli. (ONLY THE CHAPTER NAMED "Creatività, Innovazione e Sviluppo")
- (Optional reading) Roberts, K. Lovemarks, Saatchi & Saatchi.
All the materials made available by the teacher on the Unistudium platform are part of the course and their study is necessary to pass the final exam. They are provided in addition to the textbooks listed here. - Educational objectives
- This course introduces the foundations of microeconomics and investment analysis.
Students will learn how to evaluate investment projects for profitability and risk.
They will also study the behavior and interactions of individuals and firms in making decisions regarding the allocation of scarce resources.
Students will analyze the market mechanisms that establish relative prices of goods and services and allocate limited resources among alternative uses.
The course also includes a seminar about innovation and creativity management. - Prerequisites
- There are no mandatory classes to undertake before this one
- Teaching methods
- Taught class
- Other information
- More information available on the university web platform Unistudium (look at the course page)
- Learning verification modality
- Written test, which includes exercises and theory questions
- Extended program
- Cash flow diagrams. Financing and Investments. Inflation. Projects and Investment alternatives. Time value of money. Interest rate, interest earned. Opportunity cost. Simple interest. Compound interest. Nominal and effective interest rates. Cash Flows Equivalence. Formulas and factors. Bases for comparison of alternatives. Present Worth. Future Worth. Future Worht and Present Worth with simple interest. Annual Equivalent. Future Worht, Annual Equivalent and Present Worth: a comparison. Payback Period. Incremental Investment. Internal rate of return. Minimum Attractive Rate of Return. Alternatives with unequal lives. Alternative A0 (do not invest). Project Balance.
Creativity and Innovation Management. The different approaches in the study of creativity. Chindogu. Zeitgeist. Radical and incremental innovation. Design Driven Innovation. Blue ocean strategy. Innovation process. Individual and group creativity. Social Network Approach. The impact of organizational structure, behavior and culture, on creativity. Methods to improve creativity. Methods to measure creativity. Lovemarks and effective communication.
Preliminaries on Micro- and Macro-economics. Real vs nominal prices. Consumer and producer price indexes. Supply and Demand curves. The Reserve Price. Shifting of Supply and Demand curves. The Market Mechanism. Market Clearing Price. Price Elasticity of Demand. Elasticities of Supply and Demand. Point, arc and cross-price elasticities. Other elasticities. Long-run and Short-run elasticities. World oil market example. Consumer behavior and preferences. Indifference curves. Perfect complements and substitutes. Marginal rate of substitution. Regular preferences. Utility and utility functions. Marginal Utility. Utility functions (also for perfect complements and substitutes). Almost linear preferences. Budget line. Changes in income and prices. Consumer choice and maximization of consumer satisfaction. Consumer choice in the case of perfect complements and substitutes. Production. The production function. Average and marginal products. Isoquants. Production in the short and long run. Marginal rate of technical substitution. Costs of production in the long and short run. Shapes of the cost curves. Isocost curves. Choice of optimum inputs. Perfectly Competitive Markets. Marginal Revenue, Marginal Cost and Profit Maximization. Output choices in the Short- and Long-run. Prices to enter and exit the market. Single firm demand and supply curves. Industry demand and supply curves. Exercises.