MBA in Business Economics and Artificial Intelligence

The course is divided into two sections. In the first section, the course analyzes the activities of a modern state. At the beginning, the limits and size of government activity, in a market economy, and the main tool of policy implementation which is the government budget are examined. Next, the main methods used to evaluate the exercise of economic policy are examined. A basic objective is to use the available resources in the most efficient way to maximize the output. At the same time, however, we are also interested in the fairer distribution of the produced product, a goal that often contradicts the principle of efficiency. That is why we will examine ways of measuring the inequalities that are created and how efficiency can be combined with justice. It also examines why the state intervenes in a competitive market economy. Even if the functioning of the market gives us the optimal result, even if the distribution of the produced product is fair, the state still intervenes to provide goods and services that the free competitive market does not provide at all or provides them in socially insufficient quantities. Next, the other very useful tool at the state's disposal will be examined, and that is taxation. In modern societies, taxation yields almost all of the resources that the state can use to carry out its basic activities, such as national defense, education, health, etc. At the end, the institutional framework of Public Procurement and the manner in which Financial Control is exercised in Greece are described. In the second section, the attention is directed to the creation and operation of the "artificial state entity", namely the European Union (EU) and in particular the Economic and Monetary Union. At the beginning, the historical evolution of the creation of the EU is and the EMU is presented, then the theoretical rationale for the creation of the EMU examined through the theories of unification and integration and the reasoning of the Optimal Currency Areas where the pros and cons of an Economic and Monetary Union are analyzed. The course continues with the presentation and discussion of the criteria for joining the EMU where the economic background of the operation of the EMU and especially the New Macroeconomic Consensus is analyzed. Then the euro crisis is presented where emphasis is placed on highlighting the "architectural mistakes" of the creation of the EMU and finally, based on the background of the Euro crisis, the measures that have been taken to resolve the crisis and remove the "mistakes" of the EMU are presented EMU based on the proposals made by the report of the five presidents of the EU and the EMU.