Skills you'll gain

Specialization - 3 course series

Through fun video lectures, short quizzes, discussions, and problem sets, we’ll be seeing how economics identifies how opportunity costs affect economic decisions. How to calculate GDP. And of course, how assorted variables impact the Supply and Demand Curve, just to name a few.

In this first course of a three course Specialization adapted from my ECON 100 course taught at Rice University, we'll cover the introduction to the basic concepts of microeconomics and macroeconomics. Microeconomics component includes analysis of supply and demand, consumer and producer behavior, and competitive and noncompetitive market equilibria, with applications to current policy issues. Macroeconomics component provides an overview of the determination of national output, employment, interest rates, and inflation, and analyzes monetary fiscal policies and international trade. More specifically here's some things you should be able to do by the end of the course: 1. Identify how Opportunity Costs affect economic decisions. 2. Discover the basics of the study of economics 3. Compare the long and short of economic theory 4. Link trade and national production 5. Discuss what tradeoffs nations face in production 6. Determine how market supply relates to prices 7. Compare the relationships between the price elasticity of demand and revenue 8. Discover how taxes affect supply and demand Lastly there is a book that I've written that coincides with this and the other two courses in the Specialization. You can purchase it here: https://he.kendallhunt.com/product/story-economics-principles-tale

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.

Through course lectures, quizzes, discussions, and problem sets, my hope is that you'll be able to digest economic news with a more discerning viewpoint, and have a more informed view about the cost and benefits of economic policy. Finally, my hope is that you've learned to look at the world around you through the eyes of an economist. By the end of this course you should be able to: 1. Describe how GDP is used to measure macroeconomic performance. 2. Describe how inflation is used to measure macroeconomic performance. 3. Describe how unemployment rates and participation rates are used to measure macroeconomic performance. 4. Identify the primary sources of economic growth and explain the observed cross- country differences in income per capita. 5. Define savings and explain the factors influencing financial flows and international trade. 6. Identify the function of the federal reserve, describe the relationship between nominal interest rates, money demand and money supply, and describe the relationship between exchange rates and Net Exports. 7. Explain the interaction between aggregate demand and aggregate supply to determine the price level, real GDP, and employment. 8. Describe the role of government and analyze policy responses to business cycle shocks

Principles of Economics: Microeconomics - Down to Business

Principles of Economics: Macroeconomics - The Big Picture