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1.2: Course Contents at a Glance

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    The following list shows the module-level topics for the course. To see all of the course pages, visit the Table of Contents.

    Module 1: Economic Thinking

    • Understanding Economics and Scarcity
    • The Concept of Opportunity Cost
    • Labor, Markets, and Trade
    • Microeconomics and Macroeconomics
    • Economic Models
    • Purpose of Functions
    • Solving Simple Equations
    • Creating and Interpreting Graphs
    • Interpreting Slope
    • Types of Graphs

    Module 2: Choice in a World of Scarcity

    • Budget Constraints and Choices
    • Calculating Opportunity Cost
    • The Production Possibilities Frontier
    • Productive Efficiency and Allocative Efficiency
    • Rationality and Self-Interest
    • Marginal Analysis
    • Positive and Normative Statements

    Module 3: Supply and Demand

    • Economic Systems
    • What Is Demand?
    • Factors Affecting Demand
    • What is Supply?
    • Factors Affecting Supply
    • Equilibrium, Surplus, and Shortage
    • Changes in Equilibrium
    • Finding Equilibrium
    • Changes in Supply and Demand

    Module 4: Applications of Supply and Demand

    • Price Ceilings
    • Price Floors
    • A Closer Look at Price Controls
    • Trade and Efficiency
    • Consumer & Producer Surplus
    • Inefficiency of Price Floors and Price Ceilings
    • Labor and Financial Markets

    Module 5: Elasticity

    • Elasticity of Demand
    • Examples of Elastic and Inelastic Demand
    • Calculating Elasticity and Percentage Changes
    • Calculating Price Elasticities Using the Midpoint Formula
    • Categories of Elasticity
    • Price Elasticity of Supply
    • Income Elasticity, Cross-Price Elasticity & Other Types of Elasticities
    • Elasticity and Total Revenue
    • Elasticity, Costs, and Customers
    • Tax Incidence

    Module 6: Utility

    • Consumer Choice and Utility
    • Marginal Utility versus Total Utility
    • Rules for Maximizing Utility
    • Income Changes and Consumption Choices
    • The Foundations of the Demand Curve
    • Indifference Curve Analysis
    • Behavioral Economics: An Alternative Viewpoint

    Module 7: Production and Costs

    • What is Production?
    • The Production Function
    • Costs and Profit
    • Costs in the Short Run
    • Average Costs and Curves
    • Lessons From Alternative Measures of Cost
    • Production in the Long Run
    • Long Run Costs and Production Technology
    • Economies of Scale
    • The Size and Number of Firms in an Industry

    Module 8: Perfect Competition

    • Perfect Competition
    • Profit Maximization in a Perfectly Competitive Market
    • Calculating Profits and Losses
    • The Shutdown Point
    • Entry and Exit Decisions in the Long Run
    • Efficiency in Perfectly Competitive Markets

    Module 9: Monopoly

    • Monopolies
    • How Monopolies Form: Barriers to Entry
    • Profit Maximization for a Monopoly
    • Computing Monopoly Profits
    • The Inefficiency of Monopoly
    • Price Discrimination and Efficiency
    • Corporate Mergers
    • Regulating Anticompetitive Behavior
    • Regulating Natural Monopolies
    • The Great Deregulation Experiment

    Module 10: Monopolistic Competition and Oligopoly

    • Monopolistic Competition
    • Profit Maximization under Monopolistic Competition
    • Entry, Exit and Profits in the Long Run
    • Monopolistic Competition and Efficiency
    • Product Differentiation and Advertising
    • Why do Oligopolies Exist?
    • Collusion or Competition?
    • Prisoner’s Dilemma

    Module 11: Public Goods and Externalities

    • Externalities
    • Public Goods
    • Free Riders
    • Positive Externalities and Technology
    • Negative Externalities: Pollution
    • Command-and-Control Regulation
    • U.S. Environmental Laws
    • How Governments Can Encourage Innovation
    • Market-Oriented Environmental Tools

    Module 12: Labor Markets

    • Labor Markets
    • The Demand for Labor
    • Labor Market Power by Employers
    • Labor Market Power by Employees
    • Employment Discrimination
    • Immigration

    Module 13: Income Distribution

    • How is Poverty Defined and How Widespread is it?
    • The Poverty Trap
    • The Safety Net
    • Measuring Income Inequality
    • Causes of Growing Inequality
    • Government Policies to Reduce Income Inequality

    Module 14: Globalization and Trade

    • Absolute and Comparative Advantage
    • Comparative Advantage and the Gains from Trade
    • Intra-Industry Trade
    • Demand and Supply Analysis of International Trade
    • Protectionism
    • The Tradeoffs of International Trade
    • The Role of the GATT in Reducing Barriers to Trade
    • Trade Policy: Organizations and Agreements

    Module 15: Exchange Rates and International Finance

    • The Foreign Exchange Market
    • Strengthening and Weakening Currency
    • Demand and Supply Shifts in Foreign Exchange Markets
    • Macroeconomic Effects of Exchange Rates
    • Exchange-Rate Policies

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