SYLLABUS FOR PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS
Dr. Collins
“A creative economy is the fuel of magnificence”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Principles of Economics is a one-semester course. The objective of this course is for students to master fundamental economic concepts, and appreciate how the principal concepts of economics interrelate. During the semester we will study units on fundamental economics concepts, microeconomics, macroeconomics and international economics. The units may be presented in any order that the instructor selects. Please note and record any target dates supplied for the study of each unit.
Course Outline
Unit 1—Introduction to Economics & Fundamental Economics Concepts
Chapter 1 What Is Economics?
Chapter 2 Economic Systems and Decision Making
Unit 2—Business Organizations
Chapter 3 Business Organizations
Unit 3—Microeconomics
Chapter 4 Demand
Chapter 5 Supply
Chapter 6 Prices and Decision Making
Chapter 7 Market Structures
Unit 4—Money & Banking
Chapter 14 Money, Banking, and the Fed (Sections 1 and 2)
Unit 5-- Macroeconomics: Policies
Chapter 12 Macroeconomic Performance
Chapter 13 Economic Instability
Chapter 14 The Federal Reserve and Monetary Policy (Section 3) Chapter 15 Achieving Economic Stability
Unit 6 International and Global Economic
Chapter 16 International Trade
Course Objectives—
• Understand that the basic economic problem facing all individuals, groups, and nations is scarcity while tracing the development and evolution of economic systems from the 18th century to the present.
• Analyze economic systems including how our largely free market system uses the profit motive, prices and levels of supply and demand in markets to answer
the basic economic questions.
• Recognize alternatives to the market system and how decisions in such economies rely on alternative mechanisms to answer the basic economic
questions.
• Identify microeconomics as the study of individual and firm behavior and analyze the determinants of the level of employment and wages in different
occupations.
• Examine how monopolies, oligopolies, and other less than perfectly competitive
markets operate, and examine their impact on the economy.
• Understand and apply graphing, measurement concepts, other math skills, and
cost-benefit analysis that specify relationships among economic variables.
• Understand why nations trade internationally and apply the concepts of comparative and absolute advantage.
• Identify macroeconomics as the study of aggregate economic behavior and recognize the roles of fiscal and monetary policy in our economy.
• Understand the nature and functions of our country’s central bank, The Federal
Reserve System.
• Demonstrate the ability to express effectively economic analysis orally and in writing.
Materials
In addition to the basic text, a number of supplementary instructional materials will be used:
• Newspapers and news magazines
• Videos/Films
• Web sites
• Essays and other writings by notable economists
• Maps, charts and graphs
• FRED®
