Course

Course Summary
Credit Type:
Course
ACE ID:
SAYA-0005
Organization's ID:
ECON101
Organization:
Saylor Academy
Location:
Classroom-based
Length:
83 hours
Dates Offered:
Credit Recommendation & Competencies
Level Credits (SH) Subject
Lower-Division Baccalaureate 3 Microeconomics or Economics
Description

Objective:

The course objective is to provide students with a basic understanding of the principles of microeconomics. At its core, the study of economics deals with the choices and decisions that have to be made in order to manage scarce resources available to us. Microeconomics is the branch of economics that pertains to decisions made at the individual level, i.e., by individual consumers or individual firms after evaluating resources, costs, and tradeoffs.

Learning Outcomes:

  • Analyze and apply the mechanics of demand and supply for individuals, firms, and the market
  • Apply the concept of marginal analysis in order to make optimal choices, and identify whether the choices are efficient or equitable
  • Identify the characteristics of various market structures, namely, perfectly competitive markets, non-competitive markets, and imperfectly competitive markets, and compare and contrast their operations
  • Identify how individual economic agents make rational choices given scarce resources, and explain how to optimize the use of resources at hand
  • Apply basic microeconomic models related to production, trade, and the circular flow of resources
  • Apply the concept of elasticity as a measure of responsiveness to various variables
  • Analyze how the demand and supply technique works for the resource markets
  • Analyze the role of market failure in government decisions

General Topics:

  • Opportunity cost, absolute advantage, and comparative advantage
  • Supply and demand, equilibrium, movement along the supply and demand curves, and curve shifts
  • Elasticity, elasticity of supply, and elasticity of demand
  • Consumer surplus and producer surplus
  • Market failure, positive externalities, and negative externalities
  • Deadweight loss and taxation and price controls
  • Marginal utility, utility maximization, optimization, and maximizing behavior
  • Production curves and cost curves
  • Short run production function and short run shutdown
  • Long run production function
  • Law of diminishing marginal returns and economics of scale
  • Perfect competition, imperfect competition, monopoly, monopolistic competition, oligopoly
  • Game theory
  • Nash equilibrium
  • Capital markets, nature resource markets, labor markets, and financial markets
Instruction & Assessment

Instructional Strategies:

  • Audio Visual Materials
  • Computer Based Training
  • Discussion
  • Lectures
  • Practical Exercises

Methods of Assessment:

  • Examinations
  • Quizzes

Minimum Passing Score:

70%
Supplemental Materials