Course: Principles of Microeconomics 

Course Objectives: Course objectives are: (1) to introduce students to basic tools of economic analysis; and (2) to help students gain an understanding of the principles of resource allocation in market systems.

 Textbook:

Core Material (material covered in all sections offered of this course):

• The economic problem (scarcity)
• Economic resources
• The production possibilities curve
• The principle of comparative advantage
• The demand curve
• The supply curve
• Market equilibrium, shortages, and gluts
• Elasticity of demand
• Effect of price ceilings and price floors
• Consumer behavior/the principle of diminishing marginal utility
• The budget constraint/utility maximization
• The economic concept of cost and profit
• The principle of diminishing returns
• Production costs in the short-run
• Production costs in the long run/economies of scale
• Market structure types
• Short-run profit maximization for the firm in a purely competitive industry
• Deriving the market supply curve in a competitive industry
• Long run profit maximization in a competitive industry
• Pure competition and allocative efficiency
• Barriers to entry
• Profit maximization for the pure monopolist
• Monopoly and allocative efficiency
• Public regulation of natural monopoly
• Price discrimination
• Monopolistic competition
• Features of oligopoly
• The kinked demand curve
• Collusive oligopoly
• Oligopoly and allocative efficiency
• Externalities
• Derived demand/the marginal revenue product curve
• Markets for economic resources

Economics Course Descriptions