Explore how economists understand health outcomes and behaviours, from maternal mortality to ageing, and how these are shaped by income, education, and public systems. Reflect on what is gained and what is missed when health is treated as an economic choice.
The Economics of People: Health, Gender, and Employment
This is a Level 1 course from the Economics major, part of the Open Bachelor’s programme. It is worth 6 ECTS and takes place in Term 2 in Lisbon.
Course Summary
What can economics teach us about health, gender, and work – and how do other disciplines challenge or deepen those insights? This course introduces key economic approaches to understanding how people live, work, and thrive in diverse societies. From fertility and labour market participation to public health and population ageing, you’ll explore how economists model human choices and societal trends. Alongside this, you’ll engage with ideas from public health, sociology, and feminist thought to examine where disciplines align, where they diverge, and what’s at stake in those differences. Through case studies and current debates, you’ll learn to apply economic reasoning critically and reflectively, developing the tools to analyse inequality, evaluate policy, and think across boundaries in a complex world. You might investigate why maternal health outcomes differ across regions, how gender norms influence labour supply, or what economic theory suggests about discrimination, and then compare these insights with those from other fields to build a richer, more critical perspective.
Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs)
| Description | Mapped to Human Intelligence | |
|---|---|---|
| CLO 1 | Demonstrate a command of the basic economic models and theories in the context of health, gender, and employment. | CI3 – Mastery of Theoretical Foundations |
| CLO 2 | Apply core economic concepts to interpret how global challenges in health, gender, and labour markets are shaped by economic forces and persist across different societies. | CI4 – Mastery in Knowledge Application |
| CLO 3 | Collaborate effectively in a small group to explore and present an economic issue in health, gender, or labour markets, drawing on economic theory and empirical evidence from academic literature. | SEI5 – Collaboration |
Assessment
| Assessment Type | Weighting of Course Grade | Group Assessment? | Invigilated? | CLOs Mapped | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment 1 | Evaluative – Quiz | 20% | No | Yes | CLO 1 |
| Assessment 2 | Digital – Digital Artefact | 40% | Yes | No | CLOs 1, 2, 3 |
| Assessment 3 | Practical – Case Study | 40% | No | Yes | CLOs 1, 2, 3 |
- Assessment 1 Description: A multiple choice quiz on key concepts, administered approximately half way through the course. The quiz is designed to reinforce foundational knowledge and prepare students for deeper analysis in later assessments.
- Assessment 2 Description: In small groups, students will investigate an economic issue of their choice related to gender, health, or labour markets. apply economic concepts and models introduced in class to analyse its causes and/or consequences. The project requires students to provide contextual information, explain their analytical approach, and reflect critically on the strengths and limitations of the models used. The assignment runs throughout the course, with milestones to support project planning and group coordination. The final deliverable is a conference poster accompanied by a 10–15 minute in-class presentation, followed by a 5-minute Q&A session with peers (simulating a conference presentation, which will be spread over a few classes). The presentation should aim to communicate economic reasoning clearly and accessibly to a general audience. Feedback is provided by the Fellow at the end.
- Assessment 3 Description: Conducted under exam conditions at the end of the course, this briefing memo challenges students to apply economic tools to an unseen hypothetical or real-world scenario (e.g. a policy proposal or a news graph). Students must identify relevant concepts, interpret the scenario using appropriate models, and communicate their reasoning clearly and concisely. This includes analysing potential trade-offs, outcomes, or stakeholder impacts. The task focuses on individual synthesis and clarity of thought, without the use of digital tools. Graphs and simple calculations may be used to support the analysis; these are excluded from the page limit.
Indicative List
of Topics
Investigate how gender shapes labour supply, fertility, and household decision-making. Use economic models to analyse inequality in work and care, then contrast these with insights from feminist theory and social research.
Study how economists explain employment, wages, and job search. Examine real-world evidence on discrimination and segmentation in labour markets, and assess how well standard models account for lived experience and structural inequality.
Engage with perspectives from public health, sociology, and feminist thought to critically assess economic reasoning. Identify where disciplines converge or conflict, and what these tensions reveal about the politics of knowledge.
Use tools from microeconomics, including utility, incentives, and behavioural insights, to model choices and policy outcomes. Through case studies and debates, develop the capacity to think clearly, critically, and ethically about complex social issues.
