MICROECONOMICS PRINCIPLES WITH ETHICS

A COMPLETE ONLINE TEXT AND STUDY GUIDE

Below are Links to 26 course modules covering a one-semester principles of microeconomics course. Each module contains readings, powerpoint presentations, video lectures and links to related internet sites and news articles.

1. Introductory Issues in Microeconomics
2. Models - The Economic Method
3. The Pure Exchange Model
4. The Ethics of Market Exchange
5. Production and Comparative Advantage
6. Comparative Advantage and Economic Growth
7. Theory of Consumer Demand
8. Demand Tools – Demand Elasticities and Consumer Surplus
9. Theory of Production
10. Monopoly Market Theory
11. Oligopoly Market Theory
12. Perfect Competition Theory - Part 1
13. Perfect Competition Theory - Part 2
14. Theory of Market Supply
15. Market Adjustments + Supply Tools
16. Ethics of Market Competition
17. Government Policies - Taxes and Subsidies
18. Government Policies - International Trade and Tariffs
19. Government Policies - Price Ceilings / Price Gouging
20. Government Policies - Price Floors / Minimum Wages
21. Government Policies - Price Supports / Political Economy
22. Market Imperfections - Public Goods / Role of Government
23. Market Imperfections - Common Resources
24. Market Imperfections - Negative Externalities
25. Market Imperfections - Positive Externalities
26. Ethics In Economics Recap

 

VIDEO LECTURES

Key Features of this Textbook

• Includes an 80% orthodox approach similar to traditional economics textbooks
• Demonstrates the critical role ethical behavior plays in assuring economically efficient outcomes (this is missing in traditional economics texts)

• Emphasizes that the economic method of model building is a simplification of the real world rather than a literal depiction. Models are useful guides, not reality.
• Provides numerous examples of assumption relaxation as a way of illustrating the importance of key assumptions in models, including implicit ethical assumptions.
• Incorporates an additive approach to economic models, beginning with the simplest and continually adding more features. For example, supply and demand is not introduced until after perfect competition which in turn is not introduced until after monopoly and oligopoly is covered.
• Includes greater emphasis on distributional welfare impacts of government policies (who are the winners and losers?)
• Emphasizes how outcomes change in the presence of market imperfections, a.k.a. market failure.
• Highlights both public and private methods to correct for market imperfections
• Includes coverage of political economy issues and the failure of government in democratic societies.
• Highlights how unethical behavior represents an example of market imperfections.
• Highlights why economic efficiency requires specific kinds of ethical behavior
• Highlights the theoretical support for economic ideologies on both the right and the left. This is done by comparing ideas expressed by Joesph Stiglitz and Milton Friedman, among others.
• Notes that economic disagreements are often based on whether one believes more in market failure or more in government failure.
• Showcases the contributions of famous thinkers in economics from Adam Smith to Elinor Ostrom.
• Provides students a foundation upon which to determine their own political and economic ideology. (the text's bias is centrist and emphasizes the both pros and cons on the right and the left)