The purpose of this course is to explain the role of the price system in allocating resources. In addition, I have two personal goals relating to this course. First, I want to make economics interesting and perhaps even fun. Second, I want to award grades fairly. Students that come to class, do the reading, and practice the problems, will do well in my class.
Objectives Describe the basic functions of the price system in allocating resources.
Be able to read, graph, and interpret a production possibility curve. Be able to understand and illustrate the concepts of opportunity cost, comparative advantage and absolute advantage. Understand and apply supply and demand curves, how these curves are derived, shifts in curves vs. movements along the curve, and applications of these curves. Understand the different measures of cost, revenue and profits, how they are derived, and their implications for firms. How to apply economic reasoning to such topics as the labor market, externalities, market failure problems, public goods, income distributions, taxation issues, and other current topics.