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Unit of study_
BUSS5514: Foundation in Economics and Finance
2025 unit information
Economics underlies all business decisions, from pricing to product development, to negotiations, to understanding the general economic environment. This unit introduces microeconomic and macroeconomic analysis, equipping students with the tools to understand the impact of economic, socio-cultural, institutional, and technological factors on businesses' operations. In microeconomics, we address how individual consumers and firms make decisions and how they interact in markets. It also introduces a framework for understanding and analysing the broader economic and public policy environment in which a business competes. In macroeconomics, we consider the aggregate level of economic activity by examining the behaviour of GDP, unemployment and inflation in the short-run and examining the role of stabilization policies. The unit then introduces basic concepts forming the foundations of finance. Finance in many ways emanates from economics. Overall, it examines the management, creation and study of financial resources and instruments that comprise the financial system. The firm and the role of financial institutions are explored along with developing important skills in financial mathematics. The unit then moves to fundamental financial tools, which include the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) and the weighted-average cost of capital (WACC). The decisions firms make around capital structure and payout policy are then studied.
Unit details and rules
Managing faculty or University school:
Business (Business School)
| Study level | Postgraduate |
|---|---|
| Academic unit | Accounting |
| Credit points | 6 |
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Prerequisites:
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None |
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Corequisites:
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None |
| Prohibitions:
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BUSS5001 or FINC5001 |
| Assumed knowledge:
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None |
At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:
- LO1. Describe the fundamental principles of microeconomics and macroeconomics and apply these to real-world contexts.
- LO2. Identify, explain and analyse the role of individuals and businesses in different types of market structures, including perfect competition, monopolistic competition, monopoly, and oligopoly.
- LO3. Describe and critically evaluate the effect of changes in macroeconomic indicators including regulatory and political environments on business activity.
- LO4. Apply the mathematics of finance and identify basic financial risk and risk management concepts.
- LO5. Describe the role of finance in an organization and the economy.
- LO6. Discuss how corporations are financed along with common financial tools for measuring and managing risk and returns.
- LO7. Explain the theory of capital markets along with how organisations make investment and distribution decisions.
Unit availability
This section lists the session, attendance modes and locations the unit is available in. There is a unit outline for each of the unit availabilities, which gives you information about the unit including assessment details and a schedule of weekly activities.
The outline is published 2 weeks before the first day of teaching. You can look at previous outlines for a guide to the details of a unit.
| Session | MoA ? | Location | Outline ? |
|---|---|---|---|
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Semester 1 2024
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Normal day | Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney | |
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Semester 2 2024
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Normal day | Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney |
| Session | MoA ? | Location | Outline ? |
|---|---|---|---|
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Semester 1 2025
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Normal day | Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney |
Outline unavailable
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Semester 2 2025
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Normal day | Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney |
Outline unavailable
|
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Modes of attendance (MoA)
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