Concepts: In this section, we cover the foundations of economics. What is economics?
What are the pillars of modern economic thought? How do economists study the economy?
Why is the concept of opportunity cost so important? This section culminates in the production
possibilities frontier and the idea of specialization.
Concepts: We introduce markets and market structures, focusing on competitive markets. We then build the supply and demand curves,
provide an argument for the existence of market equilibrium, and study the impact of curve shifts on equilibrium. We end this section by
conducting welfare analysis on free markets, markets with taxes and subsidies, and markets with price floors and ceilings.
Concepts: We transition from microeconomics into macroeconomics. We introduce GDP through circular flow, establishing that
production always equals income and always equals expenditure. We then separate prices from quantities in the aggregate data by
introducing real GDP and the GDP deflator. We study inflation by constructing the consumer price index and examining reasons inflation
is costly. Lastly, we introduce the equation of exchange and briefly consider the link between the money supply and inflation.