Overview of Course

Microeconomics is the study of human decision-making. This course will explore consumer decision making and how changes in market forces, policies, and preferences impact decisions. The course will also explore the decisions made by producers in terms of what and how much to produce and which inputs they will use to produce their goods. We will analyze how factors like technological change, labor shortages, and policies impact firms’ decisions. Lastly, we will discuss how the market, when working efficiently, can effectively allocate goods and services across the economy and explore situations where markets might fail, including public goods, externalities and pollution, insurance markets, and non-cooperative environments. Throughout our voyage, we will investigate how the policies of countries we are visiting impact consumer and producer decision-making and how these countries use policies to address market failures.