Each link will have a short description of the topic, or sample questions asked on homework and exams, and some with a short video discussing the topic.
First view this:Top 10 intro to microeconomics list, things to understand if you want to pass your intro to microeconomics class.
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How to think when solving economics problems.
1.0 Introduction to Microeconomics (summary of first day notes)
1.1 What is economics?
1.2 What is the difference between micro and macro economics?
1.3 The core idea of economics, scarcity.
1.4 What is opportunity cost?
1.5 An example of opportunity cost for students.
1.6 The three fundamental questions every economy has to answer. What, how, and for whom.
1.7 Self-Interest vs Social Interest, the invisible hand and resource allocation.
1.7a An example of microeconomics and social interest, a study of Facebook.
1.8 The five fundamental principles of economics: rationality, costs, benefits, incentives, marginal analysis.
1. The difference between positive and normative analysis with examples.
1.9 What is the difference between endogenous and exogenous variables.
1.10 Types of economies and circular flow
1.A Why marginal benefit MB equals marginal cost MC in economics... ALWAYS
1.A How to calculate MARGINAL benefits/costs from a graph and use them to calculate equilibrium
1.A All you really need to know about graphs for economics
2.0 The basics of Microeconomics
2.1 How to draw a PPF (production possibilities frontier)
2.2 What to know about PPFs
2.3 Drawing PPFs and calculating opportunity costs
2.4 What causes a PPF to shift
2.5 The difference between comparative and absolute advantage.
2 An example of constructing a PPF and calculating opportunity costs.
2. A discussion of production efficiency.
How to solve comparative advantage and gains from trade problems (4 steps):
2.9 Figure out an allocation that makes each country better off.
2.9a Gains from trade example
2.9b Calculating marginal and total opportunity costs example
2.10 SUMMARY: PPFs, opportunity costs, and gains from trade
2.9a Gains from trade example
2.9b Calculating marginal and total opportunity costs example
2.10 SUMMARY: PPFs, opportunity costs, and gains from trade
3.0 Supply and Demand (cheat sheet for supply/demand shifts)
3.1 Defining the law of demand.
3.2 The difference between demand and quantity demanded.
3. How to aggregate demand functions
3.3 What shifts a demand curve? Determinants of demand.
3. How a change in income affects demand
3.4 Defining the law of supply.
3.5 What shifts a supply curve? Determinants of supply.
3. An increase in supply shifts the supply curve down.
3. How the price mechanism can eliminate a shortage or a surplus
3.6 How to find equilibrium price and quantity mathematically
3.6a Example, solving for equilibrium price and quantity with income and substitute prices
3.6 Example, solving for equilibrium given individual consumers and firms
3.6 Example, why are gas prices so high?
3. What happens to equilibrium price and quantity when demand decreases?
3.7a Example, multiple supply and demand shifters in the coffee market.
3.8b What happens if both supply and demand increase at the same time?
3.8c Example: how advertising affects supply and demand
3.9 The economics of advertising using Groupon or other coupon selling agencies as examples.
3.0 How taxes can effect supply and demand, an example using legalized marijuana
3.10 Consumer surplus and how to calculate it.
3.11 Producer surplus and how to calculate it.
3. What is deadweight loss? Some examples using monopolies, taxes and quotas
3. How to calculate deadweight loss in 4 steps
3. How to calculate deadweight loss from a subsidy, an example
3. How to find consumer surplus without a graph
3. Considering transaction or transportation costs
3. Calculating the change in surplus given a shift in the supply curve
3. Calculating equilibrium and surplus before an after a tax (an example with math)
3. What is a binding price ceiling?
3. An example of a market with tariffs and export restraints.
3. Solving for equilibrium price and quantity about a shift in the demand and supply curves.
4.0 Elasticities
4.1 What does elasticity mean to economists?
4.2 How to solve elasticities problems in economics
4.3 What does an elasticity measure of -.2 mean?
4.4 Calculating the income elasticity of demand
4.5 Elasticity and business' revenue
4. What is cross price elasticity of demand?
4. Using the price elasticity of demand to solve for a percent change in quantity
4. Examples of different price elasticities of demand and what they mean
4. How to get quantity demanded using elasticities (an example with math)
4. How and why to use the midpoint theorem.
4. An example of Income elasticity of demand.
4. How to calculate point price elasticity of demand.
5.0 Production theory and Market Structures
5.1 Producer theory, average, marginal, fixed, total cost
5. What does decreasing marginal product imply?
5.2 An overview of perfect competition.
5. Perfect competition and profit maximization
5.3 An overview of monopolies.
5.3a Why monopolies are bad for consumers: a math example using marginal revenue
5.3b Why monopolies are bad for consumers: a graphical approach
5.3c Monopoly, monopolistic revenues, equations, elasticities, an example
5. An introduction to oligopolies
5. Short run profit opportunities for a perfectly competitive firm (examples)
5. Solving for a firms profits under monopolistic and perfectly competitive conditions
5. How a subsidy affects the perfectly competitive firm (with algebra)
5. An example of a perfectly competitive firm losing money
5.a Common resource farmers using water example
5.10 How to solve Cournot best response functions
5. A simple example of monopoly price decision making
5. PC a Q and A about selling secrets (economic profit review)
5. What happens when a perfectly competitive firm competes with the government?
5. Can an upward sloping marginal revenue curve exist for monopolies/oligopolies or a MC firm?
5. Calculating marginal and average costs for a perfectly competitive firm
5. Calculating consumer and producer surplus in a regulated monopoly.
5. Economies and diseconomies of scale explained with the long run average total cost curve.
5. How to find monopoly price and quantity mathematically.
5. How a tax affects a monopoly (with math and graphs)
Game theory
How to create and solve a 3X3 matrix for Nash Equilibrium
How to find Nash Equilibrium in a 2X2 matrix
Dominant firm/price leadership model an introduction
How to solve a dominant firm question (an example with math)
6.0 Trade and government regulation
6.1 US and Canada’s trade agreements, and the effect of NAFTA on softwood timber
6.2 The dark side of globalization: why domestic firms ask for government protection in the form of tariffs.
7.0 Utility Theory, Behavioral Economics
7.1 How to solve budget constraint problems
7. The two rules of utility maximization with an example
7. An example of a different indifference curve shapes
7. An example of a budget constraint with an endowment (some of the goods are free!)
7. An example of figuring out budgets given the prices
7. How to find total, marginal, and average utility from a table
7. What is a giffen good (with a graph).
7. Adding welfare or taxes to a budget constraint
7. An example going over budget constraints, utility functions and indifference curves.
8.0 Public Goods and Externalities
8. How public goods and externalities can cause market failure
8. Finding demand curves for public goods
8. Examples of public goods
