The content, assignments, and assessments for this course are aligned to the following learning outcomes. A full list of course learning outcomes can be viewed here: Microeconomics Course Learning Outcomes.
Module 1: Economic Thinking
- Explain what economics is and explain why it is important
- Use mathematics in common economic applications
- Use graphs in common economic applications
Module 2: Choice in a World of Scarcity
- Explain the cost of choices and trade-offs
- Illustrate society’s trade-offs by using a production possibilities frontier, or curve
- Explain the assumption of rationality by individuals and firms
Module 3: Supply and Demand
- Describe and differentiate between major economic systems
- Explain the determinants of demand
- Explain the determinants of supply
- Explain and graphically illustrate market equilibrium, surplus and shortage
Module 4: Applications of Supply and Demand
- Analyze the economic effect of government setting price ceilings and floors
- Define, calculate, and illustrate consumer, producer, and total surplus
- Examine ways that supply and demand apply to labor and financial markets
Module 5: Elasticity
- Explain the concept of elasticity
- Explain the price elasticity of demand and price elasticity of supply, and compute both using the midpoint method
- Explain and calculate other elasticities using common economic variables
- Explain the relationship between a firm’s price elasticity of demand and total revenue
Module 6: Utility
- Describe the concept of utility and explain how consumers spend in order to maximize utility
- Explain how consumer utility changes when income or prices change
- Find consumer equilibrium using indifference curves and a budget constraint
- Describe the behavioral economics approach to understanding decision making
Module 7: Production and Costs
- Explain production and the production function
- Calculate, graph and understand production costs in the short run
- Examine production choices in the long run
Module 8: Perfect Competition
- Describe the characteristics of perfect competition and calculate costs, including fixed, variable, average, marginal, and total costs
- Analyze a firm’s profit margin
- Describe how perfectly competitive markets adjust to long run equilibrium
Module 9: Monopoly
- Describe characteristics of monopolies
- Calculate and graph a monopoly’s costs, revenues, profit and losses
- Analyze strategies used to control monopolies
Module 10: Monopolistically Competition and Oligopoly
- Describe the characteristics of a monopolistically competitive industry
- Calculate and graph a firm’s fixed, variable, average, marginal and total costs in monopolistic competition
- Describe characteristics of oligopolies
Module 11: Public Goods
- Define and give examples of public goods and externalities
- Define and give examples of positive and negative externalities
- Analyze the efficacy of government policies to lessen negative externalities
- Analyze how the government promotes positive externalities
Module 12: Labor Markets
- Analyze labor markets and how supply and demand interact to determine the market wage rate
- Explain how wages are determined when employers or employees hold labor market power
- Analyze the economic implications of discrimination and immigration policies
Module 13: Income Distribution
- Explain poverty and the poverty trap
- Analyze and measure economic inequality
Module 14: Globalization and Trade
- Define and calculate comparative advantage, and understand how countries choose which goods and services to trade internationally
- Explain how barriers to trade (like tariffs, quotas and non-tariff barriers) affect businesses, consumers and workers in the economy
- Differentiate between alternative international trade regimes and how they impact global trade
Module 15: Exchange Rates and International Finance
- Define currency exchange rates and explain how they influence trade balances
- Analyze how supply and demand affects foreign currencies and exchange rates
- Explain how the balance of trade (surplus or deficit) affects the domestic economy