Economic Principles for the Veterinary Sciences

Course goals

ALL PARTICIPANTS WILL BE PLACED ON THE WAITING LIST UNTIL TWO WEEKS BEFORE THE START OF THE COURSE

GRADUATE STUDENTS:
Please be aware that you can only select a course option that shows the academic year and is offered Face-to-Face (F2F)

POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS:
Please be aware that you can only select a course option that shows the academic year and is offered Face-to-Face (F2F)  or online (depending on your registration)

(FYI: the other options are options for Continuing Education (onderwijs voor professionals))


After finishing this course you will:

• Have a basic knowledge of the broad field of economics
• Be able to discuss the role that economics play in the field of animal production
• Understand the economic decisions made by consumers, by knowing the forces influencing consumer behaviour, the concept of market demand and the concept of elasticity of demand.
• Understand the supply side of the market, as reflected in resource use and production response of businesses (production function theory) and its reflection in the market supply curve
• Understand the mechanisms behind the clearing market prices as they are determined under perfect and imperfect competition
• Be able to understand some of background of the role of the government in food production and the ways the government can be involved in food production
• Have some understanding of principles underlying the growth and instability of international trade.

Content

Contact details: Educational Office Epidemiology
E-mail: msc-epidemiology@umcutrecht.nl

Registration:
Online courses are only available for Epidemiology Postgraduate students and can register via Osiris Student. More information about the registration procedure can be found here on the Students' site.

Course coordinator:
Dr. ir. W. (Wilma) Steeneveld, UU Utrecht, Veterinary Medicine, Farm Animal Health, Utrecht, the Netherlands

Course description:
Diseases play an important role in animal production and animal trade. The economic consequences of diseases on an animal, herd and national level can be considerable and need to be investigated to successfully implement and evaluate animal health programs and policies. Animal Health Economics play an important role in the often risky decisions that need to be made about disease control. Many economic tools have been developed and are being applied to support decisions in the field of animal health. To understand animal health economics and to apply these tools efficiently a basic knowledge of economical concepts and theory is necessary.
 
The aim of this introductory course is therefore, to provide beginning students in the field of animal health economics with the basic concepts and issues in economics as they underlie decision making around animal health problems. This course can be seen as laying the foundation for the succeeding course Applied Economic Modelling for the Veterinary Sciences.

Literature/study material used:
The course will be taught from the following textbook:
 
John B. Penson, Jr., Oral Capps, Jr., C. Parr Rosson III and Richard T. Woodward.2006. Introduction to Agricultural Economics, 4 th edition. Pearson Prentice Hall, New Jersey, USA. 475 pp.
 
Chapters will be made available
 
Another possible book to use is: Principles of Microeconomics by Libby Rittenberothy Tregarthen. This book is online available http://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/bookhub/reader/21
 
The used book is an excellent introductory textbook, including many examples, good summaries of key factors, so that students can practice their newly required skills. But it also contains sufficient depth to provide a good quantitative basis for further studying animal health economics.
 
There are two disadvantages to these books (as well as to other books on agricultural economics):

• It is a generic book, so the examples are not applied to the veterinary domain
• The book is aimed at the US and although economic theories are equal for the world, examples might be typical for the US.

  
Mandatory for students in own Master’s programme:
MIght be for a specialization programme of Epidemiology & Epidemiology Postgraduate
 
Optional for students in other GSLS Master’s programme:
Yes
 
Prerequisite knowledge:
-