Microeconomics

The first topic we’ll explore is individual choice. How, according to economists, do we decide between chocolate and vanilla, between going to college and joining the army, between two roads that diverge in a yellow wood?

Economists model interdependent choice as a market process. We’ll see that under the right conditions, markets can coordinate all of our individual choices with elegant efficiency. You’ll be learning about how individual markets work, under what conditions markets coordinate choices, how a system of markets functions as a general system, and what forces distort that system undermining its efficiency.

Macroeconomics

We’ll see that, as with micro, the macroeconomy can conceivably work very well, but it can also break down. Indeed, we’ll see that the internal resilience of the macroeconomy, its ability to respond to shocks, depends on the effectiveness with which the micro markets adjust. Thus when we turn to the debate about the role of government in the economy at the macro level, we’ll see that whether one sees government as a part of the problem or a part of the solution depends in large part on one’s view of how well the microeconomy works.

The goal of this course is to give you a tool kit that will make the world a more fascinating place for the rest of your life. You can do this, and when you’re done, you’ll be glad you did.

Course Materials

The textbook for this course is:
Economics: The Ideas, The Issues, by Jerry Evensky. (2004)
ISBN: 0-536-83338-9.

This book may be purchased from any where you choose. We have found that these two sites carry the books and do not require university IDs to place an order: www.barnesandnobel.com and www.campusi.com.
Search using the ISBN number to be sure to get the correct edition of the textbook.

This course will also require assignments where you draw graphs. It is recommended that you have a scanner to scan these assignments in PDF format that you can upload.