General Economics Course

Lesson 1 • Production Possibilities and Trade-offs

Uses the production possibilities frontier to illustrate scarcity, efficiency, and opportunity cost. Connects abstract principles to concrete resource constraints.

Lesson 2 • What Economics Studies

Defines economics as the study of scarcity, choice, and resource allocation. Grounds students in the discipline's scope before introducing formal models.

Lesson 3 • Economic Models and Methodology

Explains how economists build simplified models to analyze reality. Students learn to evaluate model assumptions and interpret graphical representations.

Lesson 1 • Budget Constraints and Feasible Choices

Models the budget line as the boundary of affordable consumption bundles. Students see how income and prices limit consumer options.

Lesson 2 • Income and Substitution Effects

Decomposes price changes into income and substitution effects to explain demand behavior. Explains Giffen goods and compensated demand.

Lesson 3 • Utility and Consumer Preferences

Introduces utility as a measure of satisfaction and explores preference assumptions. Provides the behavioral foundation for demand analysis.

Lesson 1 • Profit Maximization Principles

Establishes the profit-maximizing output rule using marginal revenue and marginal cost. Applies to all market structures covered in subsequent chapters.

Lesson 2 • Production Functions and Returns

Defines production functions and examines how output responds to input changes. Establishes the technical foundation for cost analysis.

Lesson 3 • Long-Run Costs and Scale Economies

Explores how all costs become variable in the long run and how scale affects efficiency. Introduces the long-run average cost curve.

Lesson 1 • Consumer Demand Analysis

Examines the law of demand, demand schedules, and demand curves. Establishes how consumer behavior drives one side of every market.

Lesson 2 • Producer Supply Analysis

Covers the law of supply, supply schedules, and supply curves. Mirrors the demand section to complete the two-sided market framework.

Lesson 3 • Elasticity of Supply and Demand

Quantifies how responsive buyers and sellers are to price and income changes. Enables students to predict revenue and policy impacts with precision.

Lesson 4 • Market Equilibrium and Price Adjustment

Shows how supply and demand interact to determine equilibrium price and quantity. Students trace adjustment paths when markets are out of balance.

Lesson 1 • Welfare Analysis Across Market Structures

Applies consumer and producer surplus to compare welfare outcomes. Synthesizes market structure analysis into policy-relevant efficiency judgments.

Lesson 2 • Perfect Competition

Analyzes price-taking firms in competitive markets and their short- and long-run equilibria. Establishes the efficiency benchmark for comparing other structures.

Lesson 3 • Monopolistic Competition

Analyzes markets with many firms selling differentiated products. Shows how product differentiation affects pricing, profit, and long-run equilibrium.

Lesson 4 • Oligopoly and Strategic Interaction

Models interdependent decision-making among a few large firms. Introduces game theory concepts applied to pricing and output strategies.

Lesson 1 • Unemployment Measurement and Types

Defines unemployment categories and explains how labor market data are collected. Distinguishes cyclical from structural and frictional unemployment.

Lesson 2 • Business Cycles and Economic Fluctuations

Describes the phases of the business cycle and leading economic indicators. Prepares students for macroeconomic stabilization policy analysis.

Lesson 3 • Price Levels and Inflation

Covers price indices, inflation measurement, and the costs of rising prices. Connects measurement to purchasing power and monetary policy.

Lesson 1 • Aggregate Supply in Short and Long Run

Distinguishes short-run from long-run aggregate supply and their determinants. Explains why the economy self-corrects over time without policy intervention.

Lesson 2 • Fiscal Policy Tools and Multipliers

Analyzes government spending and taxation as tools to stabilize output. Introduces the spending multiplier and crowding-out effects.

Lesson 3 • Money, Banking, and Monetary Policy

Explains money creation, central bank tools, and interest rate transmission. Connects monetary policy to aggregate demand and inflation control.

Lesson 4 • Inflation-Unemployment Trade-offs

Introduces the Phillips curve and its short-run and long-run versions. Evaluates policy credibility and expectations in managing macroeconomic trade-offs.

Lesson 1 • Open Economy Macroeconomic Policy

Extends the AD-AS framework to an open economy with trade and capital mobility. Evaluates fiscal and monetary policy effectiveness under different exchange rate regimes.

Lesson 2 • Balance of Payments Accounting

Introduces the current account, capital account, and financial account structure. Shows how international transactions are recorded and balanced.

Lesson 3 • Trade Policy Instruments

Analyzes tariffs, quotas, and subsidies using supply-demand and welfare tools. Evaluates distributional effects and efficiency costs of protectionism.

Lesson 4 • Exchange Rates and Currency Markets

Explains how exchange rates are determined and how they affect trade flows. Distinguishes fixed, floating, and managed exchange rate regimes.