Economics and Management

Code:

EC0010

Acronym:

EGES

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Territory Planning and Environment

Instance: 2010/2011 - 2S

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Spatial Planning and Environment Division
Course/CS Responsible:	Master in Civil Engineering

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
MIEC	304	Syllabus since 2006/2007	1	-	4	35	106

Teaching language

Portuguese

Objectives

This course aims to:
-Enhance the purposes and methods in the area of Economics and Management and its importance in the Civil Engineering course;
- Develop basic concepts and methods on macroeconomics and microeconomics, in order to introduce civil engineers to a global environment where the techniques interact continuously with economic and other aspects of the environment.
- introduce the main tendencies of economic and management thinking and the way they make possible to interpret information on these subjects, namely in the ones which are closely related with civil engineering activities.
- give an overview on Economics and Management, as well as its main subject and challenges that the Portuguese economic policy in a European context has to face and the surrounding problematic.
- give students the opportunity to learn how to deal with calculation tools of economic analysis, which are necessary for students to understand their surrounding world.
- present the concept of open company: its main factors (extern and intern and respective interactions), tendencies of social economic evolution that affect its performance and implications of organization management (political, economic, environmental, technological and socio-cultural factors).
- stress the importance of different management subsystems, with special emphasis on the financial system (financial and accountability tools of a company)
- explain the process of strategy formulation, methods of strategic analysis and present alternative strategies
- develop students’ skills on economic and financial analysis of organizations/companies and assessment of investment projects

Program

Chapter 1- Concepts and basic principles of Economics; A brief overview on economic thinking;
Chapter 2 -The economic problem and its solutions. The behaviour of economic agents and market mechanism.
Chapter 3 -Analysis of consumer and producer theories: Basic elements. The general equilibrium model.
Chapter 4 -Presentation of the main macroeconomic aggregates: product, expenditure and revenue.
Chapter 5 - The economic cycles: Characteristics. The mechanism of the cycle. Periods of the cycle and its characterization. The Keynesian approach. The role of the government on the economic recovery
Chapter 6- Economic policy: budget policy, monetary policy and exchange policy; Brief reference to the different perspectives of the neoclassical and the Keynesian school.
Chapter 7- Portugal in the Economic and Monetary Union and its consequences on the economic policy; the situation in the sectors of construction and public works;
Chapter 8- Basic concepts of company;
Chapter 9- Strategic management of a company; methods of strategic analysis and alternative strategies
Chapter 10- The financial role in the firm; Financial information; Main conditions
Chapter 11 The Balance-Sheet: structure, components and main balances.
Chapter 12 The Profit and Loss Statement.
Chapter 13 Methods of financial analysis; Analysis of liquidity, activity, solvency and profitability.
Chapter 14- Analysis of investment projects. Main criteria for project assessment

Mandatory literature

Paul A. Samuelson, William D. Nordhaus; Economia. ISBN: 972-8298-83-8
Paul A. Samuelson; Les grands Courants de la Pensée economique, Presses Universitaires de Grenoble
João Luís César das Neves; Introdução à Economia, Verbo
J. D. Lecaillon; J. M. Page; C. Ottavi ; Économie du Monde Contemporain, Les éditions d´organisation
Edwin Mansfield ; Economie appliquée à la Gestion, Economica
José da Silva Lopes ; A Economia Portuguesa desde 1960, Gradiva
A. Mendonça Pinto ; União Monetária Europeia- Portugal e o Euro, Universidade Católica Editora
António de Sousa; Introdução à Gestão - uma abordagem sistémica
Idalberto Chiavenato; Administração de Empresas - uma abordagem contingencial, MacGrawHill
H. Martinet ; Estratégia, Sílabo
J.P.Helfer ; Gestão: as funções da empresa, Sílabo
Luís Cardoso ; Gestão Estratégica das Organizações – como vencer os desafios do século XXI, Verbo
Henry Mintzberg ; The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning, Prentice Hall
João Carvalho das Neves; Análise Financeira: métodos e técnicas, Texto Editora

Complementary Bibliography

George Frederik Stanlake ; Introdução à Economia, McGraw Hill

Teaching methods and learning activities

In the theoretical classes important concepts and results of the different subjects handled will be presented, emphasizing its importance in the upcoming professional activity of civil engineering, and turning to clear examples and case studies. Appeal to the understanding of the concepts and their application and inter-relations, and to the interpretation of different economic, financial and management information.
In the practical classes, the student is lead, in a first stage, to the interpretation of economic and management information from different sources, and to the resolution of selected problems, and in a second stage, to the integrated application of the concepts learned in the sense of the resolution of case studies reflecting decision making processes considering a concrete strategic management problem a firm/organization can potentially face.

keywords

Social sciences > Economics > Management studies > Management of enterprises
Social sciences > Economics > Microeconomics
Social sciences > Economics > Management studies > Financial management

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation with final exam

Assessment Components

Description	Type	Time (hours)	Weight (%)	End date
Attendance (estimated)	Participação presencial	0,00
	Teste
	Exame
	Trabalho escrito
	Total:	-	0,00

Eligibility for exams

According to General Evaluation Rules of FEUP, students must attend to 75% of the classes.

Calculation formula of final grade

Final Exam - 20 values

Examinations or Special Assignments

Group work in the field of economics
Individual work in the field of management

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

A final exam which will cover all the themes that have been taught.
SPECIAL RULES FOR MOBILITY STUDENTS:
Proficiency in Portuguese and/or English;
Previous attendance of introductory graduate courses in the scientific field addressed in this module;
Evaluation by exam and/or coursework(s) defined in accordance with student profile.

Erasmus students will be submitted to the following process of evaluation:
1.To elaborate a work about the characterisation of the economy of the origin country, evolution and current situation including a focused approach to the public works and building sector.
2.To present the main findings of the work in one of the last classes of the year, following an agreement with the teacher.
3.To elaborate the work students are invited to collect and select information from some international sources such as OECD and EUROSTATS. The information must be completed with some other information from national sources.
4.Until 12th of April students must submit to the teacher a proposal of structure of the work, bibliography and sources of information. This structure must be agreed with the teacher.
5.The work have to be written in English, max of 20 pages (statistics and other materials can be included in annex).

Classification improvement

A final exam which will cover all the themes that have been taught.

Observations

............................................................
Working time estimated out of classes: 2 hours