The following list is a summary of the topics covered in this microeconomics course.
Module 1: Economic Thinking
- Understanding Economics and Scarcity
- The Concept of Opportunity Cost
- Labor, Markets, and Trade
- Microeconomics and Macroeconomics
- Economic Models
- Purpose of Functions
- Solving Simple Equations
- Creating and Interpreting Graphs
- Interpreting Slope
- Types of Graphs
Module 2: Choice in a World of Scarcity
- Budget Constraints and Choices
- Calculating Opportunity Cost
- The Production Possibilities Frontier
- Productive Efficiency and Allocative Efficiency
- Rationality and Self-Interest
- Marginal Analysis
- Positive and Normative Statements
Module 3: Supply and Demand
- Economic Systems
- What Is Demand?
- Factors Affecting Demand
- What is Supply?
- Factors Affecting Supply
- Equilibrium, Surplus, and Shortage
- Changes in Equilibrium
- Finding Equilibrium
- Changes in Supply and Demand
Module 4: Applications of Supply and Demand
- Price Ceilings
- Price Floors
- A Closer Look at Price Controls
- Trade and Efficiency
- Consumer & Producer Surplus
- Inefficiency of Price Floors and Price Ceilings
- Labor and Financial Markets
Module 5: Elasticity
- Elasticity of Demand
- Examples of Elastic and Inelastic Demand
- Calculating Elasticity and Percentage Changes
- Calculating Price Elasticities Using the Midpoint Formula
- Categories of Elasticity
- Price Elasticity of Supply
- Income Elasticity, Cross-Price Elasticity & Other Types of Elasticities
- Elasticity and Total Revenue
- Elasticity, Costs, and Customers
- Tax Incidence
Module 6: Utility
- Consumer Choice and Utility
- Marginal Utility versus Total Utility
- Rules for Maximizing Utility
- Income Changes and Consumption Choices
- The Foundations of the Demand Curve
- Indifference Curve Analysis
- Behavioral Economics: An Alternative Viewpoint
Module 7: Production and Costs
- What is Production?
- The Production Function
- Costs and Profit
- Costs in the Short Run
- Average Costs and Curves
- Lessons From Alternative Measures of Cost
- Production in the Long Run
- Long Run Costs and Production Technology
- Economies of Scale
- The Size and Number of Firms in an Industry
Module 8: Perfect Competition
- Perfect Competition
- Profit Maximization in a Perfectly Competitive Market
- Calculating Profits and Losses
- The Shutdown Point
- Entry and Exit Decisions in the Long Run
- Efficiency in Perfectly Competitive Markets
Module 9: Monopoly
- Monopolies
- How Monopolies Form: Barriers to Entry
- Profit Maximization for a Monopoly
- Computing Monopoly Profits
- The Inefficiency of Monopoly
- Price Discrimination and Efficiency
- Corporate Mergers
- Regulating Anticompetitive Behavior
- Regulating Natural Monopolies
- The Great Deregulation Experiment
Module 10: Monopolistic Competition and Oligopoly
- Monopolistic Competition
- Profit Maximization under Monopolistic Competition
- Entry, Exit and Profits in the Long Run
- Monopolistic Competition and Efficiency
- Product Differentiation and Advertising
- Why do Oligopolies Exist?
- Collusion or Competition?
- Prisoner’s Dilemma
Module 11: Public Goods and Externalities
- Externalities
- Public Goods
- Free Riders
- Positive Externalities and Technology
- Negative Externalities: Pollution
- Command-and-Control Regulation
- U.S. Environmental Laws
- How Governments Can Encourage Innovation
- Market-Oriented Environmental Tools
Module 12: Labor Markets
- Labor Markets
- The Demand for Labor
- Labor Market Power by Employers
- Labor Market Power by Employees
- Employment Discrimination
- Immigration
Module 13: Income Distribution
- How is Poverty Defined and How Widespread is it?
- The Poverty Trap
- The Safety Net
- Measuring Income Inequality
- Causes of Growing Inequality
- Government Policies to Reduce Income Inequality
Module 14: Globalization and Trade
- Absolute and Comparative Advantage
- Comparative Advantage and the Gains from Trade
- Intra-Industry Trade
- Demand and Supply Analysis of International Trade
- Protectionism
- The Tradeoffs of International Trade
- The Role of the GATT in Reducing Barriers to Trade
- Trade Policy: Organizations and Agreements
Module 15: Exchange Rates and International Finance
- The Foreign Exchange Market
- Strengthening and Weakening Currency
- Demand and Supply Shifts in Foreign Exchange Markets
- Macroeconomic Effects of Exchange Rates
- Exchange-Rate Policies