ECON 216 - Principles of Microeconomics

3 Credit (3 lecture, 0 lab) 3 Contact Hours [ECON 215 ]

This course introduces students to the basics of microeconomic analysis and international trade. The course materials focus on modeling consumer and business decision making under several different market structures. The course will also introduce the fundamentals of international trade covering the behavior of both product and financial markets. Upon completion students should be capable of further studies at another institution and be able to directly apply course work in a business environment.
OFFERED: fall and spring semesters

Course Goals; Objectives; Competencies
Goal 1: Mastery of Basics Microeconomics

Students will be able to: model supply and demand at a more sophisticated level than ECON215.
Students will be able to: describe and explain consumer behavior with regard to a variety of decisions, i.e. elasticity of demand, income elasticity, utility theory, and indifference curves.
Students will be able to: model business decisions with regard to input/output at a basic level, including derivation of appropriate cost curves, Iso cost and Iso quant curves.
Students will be able to: discriminate among contemporary markets structures including: monopoly, monopolistic competition, oligopoly and perfect competition.

Goal 2: Mastery of Fundamentals of International Trade.

Students will be able to: explain tariffs, quotas, and subsidies and their effects on international trade.
Students will be able to: explain concepts of comparative and absolute advantage, specialization, and gains from trade.
Students will be able to: model foreign exchange of currency at a basic level, noting effects of domestic policies, arbitrage, and economic policies of foreign governments.