Microeconomics

GE 273 is an introductory economics course focusing on economics fundamentals. This course focuses on interactions of individuals, firms, and the impact government has when it intervenes in markets. Students will apply economic models and theory to solve real-world microeconomic problems. The course will use current events videos to stimulate discussion and make the content personally relevant to them. Students will be able to define terminology of microeconomics and be able to discern sound economic reasoning from that which is flawed. The course will explore the differences between normative and positive economic arguments and how to optimize consumer utility and firms’ profits. By the end of the course, students will have a better understanding of trade with other countries in international product markets and will see how microeconomic theory is applied within factor markets, specifically labor.

Textbook: Microeconomics, 3rd Edition, by R Glenn P Hubbard and Anthony P O’Brien (Prentice Hall, 2010)

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Major Instructional Areas

• Economic systems and scarcity
• Modeling – supply and demand, production possibilities, market structures
• Government intervention in markets
• Factor markets
• Market structure and pricing decisions

Topics

Click a unit link to see more detailed information about that unit.

Unit 1: Introduction to Economics

• Chapter 1: Economics: Foundations and Models

Unit 2: Production and Exchange in a Market Economy

• Chapter 2: Trade-offs, Comparative Advantage, and the Market System (pages 37 – 44 and 49 – 57)

Unit 3: Supply and Demand

• Chapter 3: Where Prices Come From: The Interaction of Demand and Supply
• Chapter 4: Economic Efficiency, Government Price Setting, and Taxes (pages 105 – 112)

Unit 4: Taxation and Elasticity

• Chapter 4: Economic Efficiency, Government Price Setting, and Taxes
• Chapter 6: Elasticity: The Responsiveness of Demand and Supply

Unit 5: International Trade

• Chapter 2: Trade-offs, Comparative Advantage, and the Market System (pages 44- 49)
• Chapter 8: Comparative Advantage and the Gains from International Trade

Unit 6: Consumer Choice

• Chapter 9: Consumer Choice and Behavioral Economics
• Midterm Exam

Unit 7: Technology, Production, and Costs

• Chapter 10: Technology, Production, and Costs
• Chapter 16: The Markets for Labor and Other Factors of Production (pages 522 – 526)

Unit 8: The Four Market Structures and Perfect Competition

• Chapter 11: Firms in Perfectly Competitive Markets

Unit 9: Realistic Competition: Monopolistic Competition and Oligopoly

• Chapter 7: Firms, the Stock Market, and Corporate Governance (pages 203 – 208)
• Chapter 12: Monopolistic Competition: The Competitive Model in a More Realistic Setting
• Chapter 13: Oligopoly: Firms in Less Competitive Markets

Unit 10: Monopoly

• Chapter 14: Monopoly and Antitrust Policy

Unit 11: Course Review, Examination, and Final Project

• Final Project
• Final Exam