ECON 216 - Principles of Microeconomics

3 Credit: (3 lecture, 0 lab, 0 clinical) 3 Contact Hours:

This course introduces students to the basics of microeconomic analysis, market failure, and international trade. The course materials focus on modeling consumer and business decision making under several different market structures. The role of government intervention under conditions of market failure is introduced. 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: spring semesters

Course Goals/ Objectives/ Competencies:
Goal 1: Apply basic decision-making theory that influence producer and consumer behavior.

Model Production Possibilities Frontier relationships.
Identify opportunity costs in representative economic scenarios.
Interpret indifference curves.
Model elasticity, utility, and market surplus theory.
Calculate simple elasticity, utility, market surplus problems.
Explain the role of Marginal Analysis in economic decision making.

Goal 2: Compare market structure influence on business price and quantity decisions.

Differentiate market structure characteristics.
Model monopoly, monopolistic competition, oligopoly and perfect competition.
Infer the impact of market structure on firm decisions about price and quantity.

Goal 3: Understand role of trade in economic development and interdependence.

Classify comparative and absolute advantage specialization and gains from trade.
Calculate basic examples of comparative and absolute advantages.
Interpret tariffs, quotas, and subsidies on international trade.
Model foreign exchange of currency at a basic level.
Interpret impact of appreciation/depreciation on domestic markets.
Describe the role of trade organizations.
Discuss protectionism and impact on trade regulation.

Goal 4: Examine factor markets (land, labor, capital) and wage determination.

Identify the risks, returns and characteristics of entrepreneurs.
Discuss factors affecting contemporary markets for labor.
Model market for labor supply and demand.

Goal 5: Investigate the role of government in efficient and inefficient markets.

Interpret impact of price controls in competitive markets.
Model impact of taxation, subsidies, and regulation to achieve social optimization.
Differentiate the characteristics of private and public goods.
Explore market implications of income and wealth inequality.