Introductory Microeconomic Analysis and Policy (Honors)

Catalog description

ECON 102H Introductory Microeconomic Analysis and Policy, Honors (3)(GS)(BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. Economics is the study of how people satisfy their wants in the face of limited resources. One way to think about economics is that it is a consistent set of methods and tools that is valuable in analyzing certain types of problems related to decision--making, resource allocation, and the production and distribution of goods and services. There are two main branches of economics, microeconomics, and macroeconomics. Macroeconomics is concerned with economy--wide factors such as inflation, unemployment, and overall economic growth. Microeconomics deals with the behavior of individual households and firms and how government influences that behavior; it is the subject of this course. More specifically, ECON 102 is an introduction to microeconomic analysis and policy. The principal objective of the course is to enable students to analyze major microeconomic issues clearly and critically. Students will be introduced to the methods and tools of economic analysis, and these analytical tools will be applied to questions of current policy interest. Learning these methods and tools and applying them to interesting policy questions and issues is sometimes called "thinking like an economist." An important goal of this course is to take each student as far down the road of "thinking like an economist" as possible. A variety of mechanisms are used to assess student performance. These evaluation methods typically include exams, quizzes, and homework assignments. This course serves as a prerequisite for several microeconomics--oriented 300--level courses. This honors version of the course is designed to provide the opportunity to pursue this course at a more in-depth and mathematically rigorous level.