Core Curricular Topics
1. Introduction to Economic Systems
- Scope: Defining microeconomics versus macroeconomics.
- Methodology: Positive versus normative economic analysis.
- Scarcity: Addressing central allocation problems (what, how, and for whom).
- Trade-offs: Exploring opportunity costs via Production Possibility Frontiers (PPF).
2. Demand, Supply, and Market Equilibrium
- Mechanics: The Law of Demand and the Law of Supply.
- Dynamics: Determinants causing curve movements versus complete shifts.
- Elasticity: Measuring price, income, and cross-price responsiveness.
- Clearing: Finding market equilibrium and understanding price controls.
3. Consumer Behavior Theory
- Cardinal Approach: Marginal utility analysis and the Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility.
- Ordinal Approach: Indifference curves, budget constraints, and optimal consumer equilibrium.
- Price Changes: Deconstructing total impact into Income and Substitution effects.
- Surplus: Calculating consumer surplus and economic welfare.
4. Production and Cost Analysis
- Returns: Production functions, short-run variable proportions, and long-run returns to scale.
- Inputs: Isoquants, isocost lines, and finding the least-cost producer equilibrium.
- Cost Structure: Deconstructing fixed, variable, marginal, average, short-run, and long-run costs.
- Efficiency: Evaluating internal and external economies of scale.
5. Market Structures and Pricing
- Perfect Competition: Characterizing price-taking firms and long-run economic profits.
- Monopoly: Price setting, deadweight loss, and forms of price discrimination.
- Imperfect Markets: Exploring product differentiation under Monopolistic Competition.
- Oligopoly: Analyzing strategic interdependencies, game theory basics, and kinked-demand curves
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