Duration: 3 hours per week - 13 weeks [ECTS: 6]

Course outline

This course focuses on the use of computer algebra systems (Mathematica, Xcas), the language for statistical computing R, and teaches the students the capabilities of these languages with examples from Economics. Students will be acquainted with the development and the implementation of programming techniques in computational software, learn how to analyze and ultimately solve many economic models, perform symbolic computations, visualize economic functions, data, trading relations. The skills they learn in this course will greatly enhance computational thinking along with analytical problem solving capabilities. The course is applications oriented. Indicative modules of the course are:

1. Software Packages' Overview: Notational Conventions and Typesetting / Palettes / Character Formatting / Syntax and Basic Commands. Basic operations on numbers, expressions, and functions are introduced and discussed. Importing managing and analyzing data.
2. Linear Algebra. Input-output models.
3. Graphical representation, plot manipulation, data visualization. Supply and demand curves, cost curves, market equilibrium, consumer and producer surplus, isoquant and isocost lines, visualization of traditional input-output models.
4. Computational optimization. Cost minimization, profit maximization in market models (pure competition to pure monopoly), intertemporal consumer theory, consumer’s choice, cost-benefit analysis.
5. Case studies in Microeconomics. Modeling in a problem‐solving framework.

This course is a computer laboratory class. E-material and e-books are provided. Assignments range from brief quizzes to a semester-long problem-solving assignment.