Principles of Microeconomics
Junction Microeconomics engages students with video openers for each lesson. The clean course design makes it easy to follow each lesson and digestible chunks of content promote retention. Microeconomics covers all of the classic microeconomic topics such as demand and supply, elasticity, monopolies and more.
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.
Course Details
Suitable for: Principles of Microeconomics 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 learn today – video first, reinforced by content and assessment
- Choose from 20 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
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 humans 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
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 — 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 Choices
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 - 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 20 - 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.