Principles of Economics: Microeconomics - Down to Business

In this second portion of the three-course specialization covering economics, we're going to be focusing on Microeconomics or the business side of things. This course is also based heavily on my ECON 100 course that I teach here at Rice University. Through lectures, short quizzes, problem sets, and discussions we're going to take a look at subjects such as, costs of production, perfect competition, monopolies, monopolistic competition, oligopolies, and household choices. And you'll still get all the unsolicited food and cooking advice sprinkled in there too :) Although this course is intended for anyone with an interest in economics, we will occasionally be using some basic math. I would also recommend that you take the first course, "A Story of Economics: Getting to Know You" before enrolling in this course. Things you should learn by the end of this course: 1. Identify how Opportunity Costs affect economic decisions. 2. Identify how economic decision makers compare marginal benefits to marginal costs to make optimal choices. 3. In a graph, identify the gains from trade. 4. Describe the relationship between prices, market demand, and market supply. 5. Calculate and interpret the meaning of an elasticity coefficient. 6. Evaluate the effects of government policy on supply and demand. 7. Calculate and interpret the meaning of market efficiency. 8. Evaluate the effects of externalities and the policies associated with them, and identify how they are related to different types of goods. 9. Identify the costs of production and interpret their shapes. 10. Communicate how different degrees of competition in a market affect pricing and output. 11. Identify the prisoner’s dilemma in the context of an application. 12. Explain the interaction between budget constraints and indifference curves.