COURSE DESCRIPTION:

Students examine the theory and application of the four market structures; pure competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly. Students determine the revenue, costs, output, and prices for each market structure along with the social implications of each market form. In addition, the students analyze various social issues such as consumer choice, pollution, health care, public works projects, and poverty transfer programs using the microeconomic principles of elasticity, benefit and cost, and diminishing returns analysis.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to:

1. Describe the operation of the market economy including supply and demand.
2. Calculate and interpret how economists' measure sensitivity of quantity demanded and supplied to changes in price and income.
3. Explain the elementary theory of consumer behavior.
4. Analyze the firm's cost of production and sources of revenue.
5. Identify the major characteristics of the following market structures: pure competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, monopoly.
6. Calculate and interpret graphically and mathematically the optimal levels of production in different market structures.
7. Explain how prices are determined in different market structures.
8. Describe potential ways to address market failures such as monopoly power, imperfect information, externalities, and public goods.
9. Discuss, using microeconomic principles, current economic issues such as poverty, international trade, environmental protection, and other governmental policies.

Question: 1. What are the two [three, four, five] most significant [central, useful, meaningful, surprising, disturbing] things you have learned during this course? Reflect on some of your perspectives before taking this course and how they have changed, if at all, based on what you have been exposed to in this course.