This module extends with applications the first year mathematics modules. It emphasises posing economic problems and the process of modelling them. The primary objective is to help students 'think like economists'.  This is accomplished by studying examples from the literature in which key insights have allowed economic problems to be understood with new clarity.  This module differs from others offered in its emphasis on formulating economic problems and the modelling process itself, rather than on solving already posed problems.

On completion of this module students will be able to:

• demonstrate an understanding of the role of modelling in economics;
• pose economic problems formally; interpret examples of economic models from the literature;
• reveal, through modelling, structural similarities between apparently dissimilar problems.