CourseHES 202

Week1 of 16

SemesterII

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This week’s topics

What is economics? Scarcity and choice

Needs and wants
Opportunity cost

What you will be able to do

1.1 Explain the law of supply and demand.

Activity

Discuss everyday choices and their opportunity costs.

Study materials

Further resources

Principles of Economics 3e, ch. 1.1: What is economics? · PDF · OpenStax (2022), scarcity; pp. 10–14 · for registered students
Principles of Economics 3e, ch. 2.1: Choices, budget constraints and opportunity cost · PDF · OpenStax (2022); pp. 28–33 · for registered students
Opportunity cost neglect: a meta-analysis · Open-access article · Maguire et al. (2023), Journal of the Economic Science Association. Pulls together 39 experiments showing people often forget what they give up when they choose. · for registered students

Materials marked “for registered students” open in the student portal, which is set up as soon as you receive final acceptance.

Week 2

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Course plan

Week 1: What is economics? Scarcity and choice
Week 2: Demand: how buyers behave
Week 3: Supply: how sellers behave
Week 4: Market equilibrium
Week 5: When demand or supply changes
Week 6: Price elasticity of demand
Week 7: Calculating elasticity
Midterm: Midterm evaluation
Week 9: Measuring the economy: GDP
Week 10: Inflation and unemployment
Week 11: Reading economic data
Week 12: Perfect competition
Week 13: Monopoly
Week 14: Markets in real life
Week 15: Review and coursework completion
Final: Final assessment and submission

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