A Story of Economics: A Principles Tale Specialization

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.

Take a trip with me in this the third and final course of this Economics 100 Specialization which is a direct adaptation from one of my courses I teach at Rice University. Specifically, in this course we're going to be focusing on Macroeconomics. What is Macroeconomics you might be asking? Well, you've come to the right place! We're going to be going over the big picture of economics- which is examining the measures we use to gauge the health of national economies and study the theories and policies aimed at improving economic health. In a nutshell, how can we use economics to make the world a better place?

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