PURPOSE OF DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS (MIL)
The study of Economics is important because it is the only subject that endeavours to explain, in a scientific manner, the road that leads to the optimising of an individual’s welfare and therefore a country's welfare under the constraints of limited resources and unlimited needs. The study of Economics, within the broader framework of other social science subjects, arm SANDF members with the knowledge of analysing, on a micro and macro level, strategic decisions regarding the consumption of scares resources within the SANDF and to make recommendations regarding the optimal use thereof.
Economic modules lectured at the military academy:
Eco 114 (Introduction to microeconomics)Introduction and background to economic issues and theory; overview
of economic systems; theory of demand, supply and interaction in the markets;
government intervention in markets- price control and taxes; theory of
production and supply; theory of alternative market structures; introduction to
markets for factors of production; inequality and poverty; the case for and
against government intervention.
Eco 144 (Introduction to macroeconomics and monetary economics)Macro-economic issues: economic growth, unemployment and inflation;
the open economy; macro-economic thought; the simple Keynesian analysis of
national income, employment and inflation; fiscal policy; money and interest;
monetary policy; Keynesian and monetary controversies; the control of aggregate
demand , aggregate supply, unemployment and inflation; supply-side economics;
international trade, balance of payments, exchange rates and international
economic relationships; economic development.
Eco 214 (Intermediate microeconomics and macroeconomics)Micro-economics: market failure; welfare economics; market for
factors of production. Macro-economics: the four sector model; the IS/LM model;
the AD/AS model. PP Economics (MIL) 114 & 144
Eco 244 (International economics and public economics)International trade:
theory of international trade, tariffs and subsidies. International finance: foreign
exchange markets; balance of payments; alternative exchange rate regimes;
international finance and the international monetary system; international
finance and debt crisis. Public
finance: introduction to fiscal theory; the role of government
allocation and redistribution function; tax structure theory; public finance in
the micro-economic context; defence budget and economics
warfare.
Eco 314 (Labour economics and defence economics)Labour economics:
the government in the labor market; wage theory; wages and inflation;
interaction between supply and labour markets; theory of unemployment; theory of
unions and strikes; theory of labour productivity and human capital; South
African labour market. Economic systems
and thought: pre-classical thought; neo-classical thought;
capitalism; socialism; communism and social democracy; mixed economy.
Defence economics: the
functioning of the defence industry; economic warfare; national budget and
defence aspects; labour economics from a defence perspective.
Eco 344 (Quantitative economics and intermediate monetary economics)Industrial economics:
the structure, conduct and performance of the South African economy. Quantitative and Econometrics
analysis: index formulation and manipulation of data; real and
nominal inflation; purchasing-price; international trade and exchange rate
interaction; introduction to statistics and overview of terminology, methodology
and interpretation; application of hypothesis testing ; regression analysis and
interpretation; use of E-Views software; data manipulation and interpretation;
research methods and data collection. Monetary economics: money and interest
rates; monetary policy; Keynesian and monetarist differencecs.
Eco 778 (Advanced defence economics)Eco 778 (Advanced microeconomics)Eco 778 (Advanced macroeconomics)Eco 778 (Advanced international economics)
