Microeconomics

Welcome to Introduction to Microeconomics. Wikipedia defines Microeconomics to be "the study of the economic behaviour of individual consumers, firms, and industries and the distribution of production and income among them".

This is an introduction to microeconomic analysis of the workings of supply and demand in the determination of price, resource allocation, and distribution. In this course markets are analyzed for their effect on economic efficiency and income distribution.

But what does this mean? "The study of economic behavior". One of the key concepts in Economics is the idea of scarcity. Society as a whole has unlimited wants, and scarcity occurs because there are not enough resources to satisfy these wants. Economic behavior comes into play when deciding how to allocate the resources available.

• Lecture I: Introduction to Microeconomics

Key Terms:

Supply, Quantity Supplied, Law of Supply, Demand, Quantity Demanded, Law of Demand, Equilibrium

Practice Problems: /Practice Problems#Supply Demand and Equilibrium/

Solutions: /Solutions#Supply Demand and Equilibrium/

• Lecture II: Supply Demand and Equilibrium

Key Terms:

Supply, Quantity Supplied, Law of Supply, Demand, Quantity Demanded, Law of Demand, Equilibrium

Practice Problems: /Practice Problems#Supply Demand and Equilibrium/

Solutions: /Solutions#Supply Demand and Equilibrium/

• Lecture III: The Effects of Taxation

Key Terms:

Excise Tax, Sales Tax

Practice Problems: /Practice Problems#The Effects of Taxation/

Solutions: /Solutions#The Effects of Taxation/

• Lecture IV: Indifference Curves and Budget Lines

Key Terms:

Indifference, Indifference Curve, Budget Line

• Lecture V: Building the demand curve

Key Terms:

Normal, Inferior, Ordinary, Giffen

• Lecture VI: Types of Markets

Key Terms:

Oligopoly, Perfect Competition, Monopoly

• Lecture VII: Consumer Theory

Key Terms:

Preferences, Utility Function, Expenditure Function, Marshallian Demand Curves, Hicksian Demand Curves

• Hal R. Varian (1993). Intermediate Microeconomics A Modern Approach Third Edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 659. ISBN 0-393-96320-9. 

• MIT Open Courseware: Principles of Microeconomics