Economics for non-economists: an introduction

This course maps to capability: 3
COST Prices include GST and are subject to change
Member
$836.00
Group Booking
$847.00
Non-Member
$869.00

Overview

This workshop supports ‘Total Asset Management and the State Infrastructure Strategy (TPP 08-02)’, ‘NSW Treasury Requirements for Economic Appraisal (TPP 07-5)’, ‘Financial Appraisal (TPP 07-4)’ and ‘Capital Business Cases (TPP 08/05)’.

 

Course Content

This workshop explores the role of economics in policy making and the contribution of the NSW Treasury. It is a precursor to the two-day ‘Cost-benefit analysis’ workshop, which goes into more specific detail and requires an understanding of economics. The workshop covers four major areas: macroeconomics (understanding the economy), microeconomics (understanding markets), macroeconomic policy (understanding government budgets) and microeconomic policy (understanding public policy and project evaluation).

Course Outcomes

By the end of this course attendees should be able to:

  • understand the economy, national income (GDP), gross state products, employment concepts, international trade and major drivers of economic output and growth
  • identify advantages and disadvantages of markets
  • understand commonwealth and state budgets, cash and accrual concepts
  • understand expenditure: recurrent and capital, total asset management and the State Infrastructure Strategy (TPP 08-02), sources of revenue, net operating and overall fiscal balances and the public sector balance sheet
  • understand the role of government, identifying objectives and options
  • identify impacts: costs and benefits
  • identify methods of economic evaluation: cost-benefit analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, financial analysis, output analysis
  • identify key concepts: base case, net social benefit, net present value, discounting, rate of return, benefit-cost ratio and the NSW Treasury requirements for Economic Appraisal(TPP07-5), Financial Appraisal(TTP07-4) and Capital Business Cases(TPP08/05).

Benefits to your organisation

  • staff who understand major economic concepts and how the economy and markets work
  • staff who have knowledge of the drivers behind government budgets
  • staff with great public policy and project evaluation skills

Benefits to you

  • understanding of the economy as a whole (macroeconomics) and the key role of markets in the economy (microeconomics)
  • understanding of the role of the government in developing budgets and macroeconomic policy, and in public policy and project evaluation (microeconomic policy)