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Principles of Economics

Junction Principles of Economics engages students with video introductions for each lesson. The clean course design makes it easy to follow each lesson and digestible chunks of content promote retention. Principles of Economics has available all of the classic micro- and macroeconomic topics such as demand and supply, elasticity, monetary policy, central banks and more.  Choose what topics best align with your syllabus and approach to teaching economics, we’ll even help you with the process.

Engaging Content

Topics are introduced with short, engaging videos. Text readings and practice activities provide detail and enable applied learning.

Meaningful Analytics

You’ll know how much time your students are spending learning, what material they’re working with, and when they lose engagement, so you can keep them on-track.

Easy to Use

All material is loaded and ready-to-go, including video, textbook, discussion boards, in-class presentation, quizzes and practice activities.

Affordable

Junction courses are 80+% less expensive than alternatives. No extras needed. Honest.

Meet the Subject Matter Expert

Susan Bell, Ph.D. is a Professor of Economics at Seminole State College. She has 25+ years experience teaching 4-year and community college students in both in-person and online courses. She has degrees from Duke University, Florida International University and American University.

Susan Bell, Ph.D.

Professor of Economics, Seminole State College

Course Details

Suitable for: Principles of Economics Courses at 2-year and 4-year Institutions

Great for: In-person, online or blended learning.

  • Developed by a Professor of Economics and an expert in the field
  • Lessons are built around the way students today learn- video first, reinforced by content and assessment
  • Select from 34 lessons with curated and sequenced activities
  • Each lesson contains introductory video, textbook readings from OpenStax, one discussion-board, one in-class presentation and one quiz
  • Students can take notes and message classmates right in the application
  • Web-based and accessible through our iPad app
  • Professor grade book and student engagement reports
  • Student notifications about upcoming quizzes
  • All-in-one design means no pop-ups, plug-ins, installing components or extra windows
  • Instructor resources are incorporated into the instructors course- no need for CD’s, DVD’s or downloads
Junction knows that the way you teach is unique. That’s why we allow you to take what we’ve built and use it as-is, or modified to fit your syllabus. Our simple editing process allows you to rearrange, add or remove content, embed videos, links or change quiz questions to better match your course. Need to collaborate with other instructors? With Junction you can share your content with colleagues. Life just got a lot easier.

Accessible: Available on the web, iPad app or as a direct link from your LMS. No downloads, plug-ins or pop-ups necessary.

Onboarding Support: Training videos and access to actual human beings to get your course launched smoothly.

Easy to Purchase: Students simply register and buy, and we can work with your bookstore as needed.

Lessons

Lesson 1 — Introduction to Economics: Overview

Learning Objectives

  • Understand the importance of using economic thinking.
  • Understand the difference between micro and macroeconomics.
  • Define economics and understand the key ideas of scarcity, choice, and exchange.
  • Understand how economists analyze the economy using theories and models.
Lesson 2 — Introduction to Economics: Basic Terms and Concepts

Learning Objectives

  • Understand and explain opportunity costs.
  • Describe the Production Possibilities Frontier and social choice.
  • Describe comparative advantage and understand its role in trade.
  • Understand and explain the differences between positive and normative economics.
  • Understand how the market system operates and explain the ‘invisible hand’.
Lesson 3 — Demand, Supply and Market Equilibrium

Learning Objectives

  • Define demand and explain how it can change.
  • Define supply and explain how it can change.
  • Understand market equilibrium and explain how the changes in supply and demand affect equilibrium prices and quantities.
Lesson 4 — Labor and Financial Markets

Learning Objectives

  • Predict shifts in the demand and supply curves of the labor market.
  • Explain price floors in the labor market such as minimum wage or a living wage.
  • Understand the application of supply and demand to the financial market.
Lesson 5 - Elasticity

Learning Objectives

  • Explain the concept of elasticity and be able to calculate the price elasticity of demand.
  • Understand the concept of “price elasticity of supply” and know how to calculate it.
  • Analyze how price elasticities impact revenue and evaluate how elasticity can cause shifts in demand and supply.
Lesson 6 — Consumer Choice

Learning Objectives

  • Understand utility theory and explain the law of diminishing marginal utility.
  • Understand consumer equilibrium and demonstrate the indifference curve theory.
  • Define behavioral economics and explain how irrational decision-making occurs.
Lesson 7 — Costs and Industry Structure

Learning Objectives

  • Describe the law of diminishing marginal returns.
  • Explain the differences between explicit and implicit costs, and understand the difference between accounting and economic profit.
  • Describe the structure of costs in the short run.
  • Describe the structure of costs in the long run.
Lesson 8 — Perfect Competition

Learning Objectives

  • Explain the assumptions of a perfectly competitive market.
  • Use graphs to solve short run problems analyzing profit maximization.
  • Analyze long run equilibrium in a perfectly competitive market.
Lesson 9 — Monopoly

Learning Objectives

  • Describe the conditions under which monopolies exist.
  • Explain and be able to demonstrate profit maximization.
  • Understand the relationship between monopolies and price discrimination.
  • Explain public policies around monopolies.
Lesson 10 — Monopolistic Competition and Oligopoly

Learning Objectives

  • Describe the characteristics of monopolistic competition and oligopoly.
  • Graph profit maximization under monopolistic competition.
  • Explain the tension in an oligopoly between cooperation and competition.
  • Explain the benefits of monopolistic competition.
  • Use game theory to explain the decision making process in an oligopoly.
Lesson 11 — Monopoly and Antitrust Policy

Learning Objectives

  • Explain antitrust law and its significance.
  • Calculate and explain concentration ratios.
  • Understand why and how governments regulate monopolies.
Lesson 12 — Environmental Protection and Negative Externalities

Learning Objectives

  • Understand the economics of pollution including the types and effects of externalities.
  • Describe command-and-control regulation.
  • Identify market-oriented environmental tools.
Lesson 13 — Positive Externalities and Public Goods

Learning Objectives

  • Understand the pros and cons of investing in new technologies and understand the role of externalities.
  • Describe the ways that governments can encourage innovation.
  • Define and give examples of public goods.
Lesson 14 — Poverty and Economic Inequality

Learning Objectives

  • Explain economic inequality and how the poverty line is determined.
  • Describe the poverty trap and identify issues in government policies designed to reduce poverty.
  • Identify the programs that compose the safety net and explain their goals.
  • Discuss income inequality in the US and understand the issues surrounding global poverty.
Lesson 15 — Issues in Labor Markets: Unions, Discrimination, Immigration

Learning Objectives

  • Explain the arguments for and against labor unions.
  • Analyze earning gaps based on race and gender.
  • Explain the economic effects of immigration.
Lesson 16 — Information, Risk, and Insurance

Learning Objectives

  • Analyze the impact of both imperfect information and asymmetric information.
  • Explain how insurance works and define “moral hazard”.
Lesson 17 - Financial Markets

Learning Objectives

  • Describe how firms raise financial capital.
  • Describe the types of investments and the tradeoffs between return and risk.
  • Explain the random walk theory.
  • Calculate simple and compound interest.
Lesson 18 - Public Economy

Learning Objectives

  • Explain the significance of rational ignorance.
  • Define special interest politics.
  • Discuss the flaws in a democratic system of government.
Lesson 19 - The Macroeconomic Perspective

Learning Objectives

  • Define GDP and explain how it is used to measure national income.
  • Understand the difference between real and nominal variables and why the difference is important.
  • Describe how to track real GDP over time.
  • Explain why GDP is not the only measure of an economy’s health.
Lesson 20 - Economic Growth

Learning Objectives

  • Understand the history of economic growth.
  • Identify and explain the conditions needed for economic growth to occur.
  • Explain economic convergence and analyze the arguments for and against.
  • Understand the conditions necessary for long term growth.
Lesson 21 - Unemployment

Learning Objectives

  • Define what is meant by the unemployment rate and understand how it is calculated.
  • Be able to identify the different types of unemployment.
  • Understand what causes changes in unemployment over the short and long run.
Lesson 22 - Inflation

Learning Objectives

  • Understand what inflation measures and how it is calculated.
  • Define the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and understand how it is measured.
  • Know how inflation has affected the U.S. and other countries’ economies and politics.
  • Understand the causes and costs of inflation.
Lesson 23 - Trade Balances and Capital Flows

Learning Objectives

  • Understand how trade balances are measured.
  • Describe how trade balances are connected to flows of financial capital
  • Discuss the pros and cons of trade deficits and surpluses.
Lesson 24 - Aggregate Demand and Aggregate Supply

Learning Objectives

  • Understand the definition of aggregate demand (AD) and explain the formula for constructing AD.
  • Understand aggregate supply (AS) and explain how it differs in the long run and short run.
  • Describe how long run AD and AS explain periods of inflation and recession.
  • Explain the three stages of the short run aggregate supply curve: Keynesian, Intermediate, and Say’s/Classical.
Lesson 25 - Keynesian Theory

Learning Objectives

  • Explain Keynesian theory and understand the multiplier effect.
  • Define the Phillips Curve and explain how it relates to Keynesian theory.
  • Understand how fiscal policy affects the economy.
  • Understand the criticisms of Keynesian Theory.
Lesson 26 - Neoclassical Theories

Learning Objectives

  • Understand the underlying principles of the Neoclassical Perspective.
  • Recognized and explain the difference between Keynesian and Neoclassical Perspectives.
Lesson 27 - Money and Banking

Learning Objectives

  • Define what money is and explain its functions in the economy.
  • Understand fractional reserve banking and the money multiplier.
  • Understand the role of banks.
  • Understand the causes of the recession of 2007-2008 and describe the roles banks and government played in the crisis.
Lesson 28 - Monetary Policy and Bank Regulation

Learning Objectives

  • Define the Federal Reserve and describe its 3 major functions.
  • Understand the relationship between bank regulation and monetary policy.
  • Understand and explain the difference between monetary and fiscal policy.
  • Describe monetary policy and the impact the Fed can have.
Lesson 29 - Exchange Rates and International Capital

Learning Objectives

  • Describe how the foreign exchange market works.
  • Explain the effects of demand and supply shifts in foreign exchange markets.
  • Describe exchange rate policies and their effects.
Lesson 30 - Government Budgets and Fiscal Policy

Learning Objectives

  • Understand how federal, state, and local governments spend.
  • Understand how federal, state, and local governments collect revenue.
  • Explain the Federal budget in terms of debt, deficits, and growth.
  • Describe how fiscal policy is used to fight recessions, unemployment, and inflation.
  • List some of the challenges governments face when enacting fiscal policy.
Lesson 31 - The Impacts of Government Borrowing

Learning Objectives

  • Explain the national saving and investment identity in terms of demand and supply.
  • Describe how fiscal policy can affect investment and economic growth.
  • Explain how government borrowing affects private saving.
  • Explain the relationship between fiscal policy and the trade balance.
Lesson 32 - Macroeconomic Policy Around the World

Learning Objectives

  • Analyze GDP per capita as a measure of the diversity of international standards of living.
  • Analyze the growth policies of low and middle-income countries seeking to improve standards of living.
  • Explain the nature and causes of unemployment around the world.
  • Identify the causes and effects of inflation in various economic markets.
Lesson 33 - International Trade

Learning Objectives

  • Define absolute absolute and comparative advantage.
  • Describe what happens when a country has an absolute advantage in all goods.
  • Understand intra-industry trade between similar economies.
  • Describe the benefits of reducing barriers to international trade.
Lesson 34 - Globalization and Protectionism

Learning Objectives

  • Understand what is meant by “Protectionism”.
  • Describe international trade and its effects on jobs, wages and working conditions.
  • Analyze the arguments in support of restricting imports.
  • Understand how trade policy is enacted.