Course overview
This course provides a basic understanding of the nature, function and structure of agricultural markets, including the economics of commodity markets and of market failure, the role of international trade policy, and how governmental policy, at home and abroad, impacts on producers in Australia.
Course learning outcomes
- Understand the relevance of the economic principles of scarcity, choice, trade-off, opportunity cost; effectiveness and eco-effectiveness, efficiency and eco-efficiency; anthropocentric and ecocentric thinking; price and price signals; economic systems
- How to apply basic economic concepts to predict likely changes in product prices and quantities in mixed economy market systems
- Introductory cost theory, markets, market structures, (comparative) market power
- The market failure concept
- The concept of 'policy' and the role of government policy re market failure
- The hierarchy of management environments, and their components and implications
- How changes in government regulations, taxes, consumer preferences and technology influence agricultural commodity markets and resource allocation
- The marketing concept and the 'customer-focussed' significance for agricultural business management
- Commodity markets and differentiated product markets
- The implications of efficient supply chain/ demand chain/ value chain management