2024

Business Economics

Name: Business Economics
Code: ECN10325D
7.5 ECTS
Duration: 15 weeks/195 hours
Scientific Area: Economy

Teaching languages: Portuguese
Languages of tutoring support: Portuguese

Sustainable Development Goals

Learning Goals

- To provide students the primary tools for understanding the world energy markets;
- To analyze, in its fullness, the energy challenges which are facing the humanity and the world economy, as well as understand the limitations of each alternative energy source;
- To assess the implications of energy consumption, by source, to the economic prosperity of countries;
- To understand how the economic regulation faces the challenges of energy market failures.

Contents

1- Introduction to Energy Economics
2- Energy sources: non-renewables vs renewables
3- Economics of fossil fuels
4- Economics of renewables
5- Energy dependency, climate change, and energy policy
6- Regulation in the energy industry
7- Energy markets and electricity markets
8- Energy demand analysis
9- Energy consumption and economic growth
10- Energy elasticity
11- Economic analysis of Energy Investments
12- Security of supply and risk analysis

Teaching Methods

1. The teaching is done according to the objectives and it intends to provide skills to the students.
2. The teaching aims to provide students the comprehensive learning of facts, concepts and principles.
3. The classes rely on a set of papers and exercises, seeking to promote the discussion of issues in Energy Economics and the improvement of students' ability to argumentation.
4. The method of exposure, both of papers and other materials, aims: 1) to develop the capacity of abstraction, 2) to encourage the understanding of the analysis of problems related to energy, 3) to reveal the findings of economic analysis and its importance for decision-making in what energy concerns, 4) to encourage the confrontation of the findings of different energy options, and 5) to give a global perspective on energy markets and energy policies.
5. The final grade is a weighted average of three components: written test (50%); research paper (40%); and Class participation (10%).

Teaching Staff (2023/2024 )

  • [responsible]