Microeconomic Principles: Decision-making under Scarcity

This course introduces you to microeconomics, the field of economics that studies the decision-making behavior of consumers and firms when their choices are constrained by scarcity. This principle of constrained decision-making is a major building block of modern economics and is the central concept around which this course is built.

This course will help you understand decisions that are made in the face of constraints, such as the transactions you make every day in the marketplace. As a consumer, you must consider your overall income when making a purchase, but business managers must take into account the presence of competitors when deciding on the price to charge you for a product. The course is divided into four parts.

In part I, you’ll gain an understanding of how consumers make decisions on the types and quantities of goods to purchase.

In part II, you’ll learn how managers decide how much to produce, the price to set for their products, and the amounts and types of inputs to buy.

In part III, the focus will be on the interaction between consumers and producers and the concepts of equilibrium and efficiency.

The final part of this course focuses on market distortions that are introduced by governments, such as taxes and tariffs, or those that result from the nature of the products produced or consumed.

This is a 3-credit hour course at Arizona State University (ECN 212 Microeconomic Principles). The cost to convert to credit is $600. This course satisfies the Social-Behavioral Sciences (SB) general studies requirement at Arizona State University. This course may satisfy a general education requirement at other institutions; however, it is strongly encouraged that you consult with your institution of choice to determine how these credits will be applied to their degree requirements prior to transferring the credit.

Click to view the complete course syllabus here.