Overview

Class Central Tips

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.

Syllabus

Welcome to the Course!

Welcome to the second course of A Story of Economics! Thank you for enrolling! Please take a few minutes and explore the orientation materials that will help you with expectations and what you need to be doing to be successful in this course.

Module 1 - The Costs of Production

Welcome to costs of production. We're going to look at the cost that firms typically face when they produce. Now, so far, in course 1, we've talked a lot about revenue. We talked a lot about revenue with elasticity, when it's elastic you lower the price to raise revenue, when it's inelastic you raise the price to raise revenue. But firms, they're not trying to maximize revenue. What are they trying to maximize? Let's find out!

Module 2 - Perfect Competition

This is going to be the first of our four different market structures that we're going to look at. Now, when you think of perfect competition, you can think of it more as really like a theoretical boundary. But it's important to understand perfect competition- We're going to be able to compare it to our other market structures, monopoly, monopolistic competition, and oligopoly, so that we can see the benefits and the advantages of competition.

Module 3 - Monopoly

Here we're going to be talking about our monopolies. Last time we talked about perfect competition. Our monopoly is really going to be the polar opposite of that. What is our monopoly? Well, let's find out!

Module 4 - Monopolistic Competition and Oligopoly

Welcome to monopolistic competition and oligopoly. What is monopolistic competition? Well as the name portends, it's a hybrid. It's a hybrid between our perfect competition and our monopolies. But that's not all! Let's get into it!

Module 5 - Household Choices

Welcome to household choices. We've been talking a lot about our firms. Here now, we're going to start talking more about our households. There's two sides to business, right? There's the buyer, there's the seller. In the labor market, there's the employee and the employer. So here as far as our household goes, who is the household in the goods market? Let's explore!