ECON 201 – Microeconomics

A key foundation of a free society is an educated population. In this course students will develop and apply critical-thinking skills to economic issues. They will develop a foundation of economic reasoning that will help them to better understand the world in which they live and their role in it. They will gain an understanding of how economic issues impact them and society on an international, national, and local level. The following global outcomes have been designed into this course: critical thinking, problem solving, writing, cultural literacy, information literacy, and use of technology. Use economic, government, corruption, market access, currency trends, and infrastructure analysis to evaluate the feasibility of doing business in a specific country.

SPECIFIC COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

After completion of the course students will be able to:
1. Define economics and explain the concepts of scarcity, choice, and opportunity cost.
2. Explain the economic way of thinking and how economists develop theories and use models to analyze the economy.
3. Define the factors of production and how they relate to the production possibilities model. Use the model to discuss efficiency.
4. Use the supply and demand model to determine the equilibrium price and quantity in a market. Describe how surpluses and shortages occur and the resulting price pressures.
5. Explain and apply price elasticity of demand and supply and it determinants.
6. Use marginal analysis to explain maximizing behavior of firms and individuals.
7. Describe the conditions that may lead to market failure and government’s intervening role.
8. Explain the concept of utility and how it affects consumers’ choices.
9. Describe and illustrate graphically how cost affects the way firms use factors of production and make production decisions.
10. Explain and illustrate graphically how price and output are determined in competitive markets and how marginal and average costs affect firms’ decisions.
11. Describe how price and output decisions are made in monopoly, monopolistic competition, and oligopoly market structures.
12. Discuss the factors that affect the supply and demand for labor, capital, and illustrate how these affect the equilibrium price and quantity of each.
13. Describe the origin and use of antitrust policies government uses to reduce anti-competitive behavior.
14. Differentiate between absolute and comparative advantage and explain how two countries can benefit from trading with each other.
15. Explain the causes and extent of poverty and income inequality.