Principles of Microeconomics: An Economist Way of Thinking

Principles of Microeconomics: An Economist Way of Thinking

Recent global economic and non-economic events have highlighted the importance of informed and well reasoned decision making of resource allocation and efficiency. This course focuses on how decision making units within the economy (e.g. consumers, firms, government departments) make choices and how choices can be made in a way that makes best possible use of limited available resources. Since life is in large part about making choices, this course will help you to understand why the world is the way it is, and in so doing, shed light on how it might be changed for the better.

Firstly the course equips you to think and see the world like an economist. Topic areas include advancing your knowledge in comparative advantage and opportunity cost. The next area, supply and demand, focuses on how choices are made in a market system and how an economic system coordinates many rational choices of self-interested decision-makers. You will explore the application of economic theory and economic efficiency of competitive markets, as well as consumer and producer surplus and deadweight loss.

This MOOC is part of the Professional Certificate in Microeconomics. We recommend that you explore the other two courses of the program, Competitive and Imperfectly Competitive Markets and Social Microeconomics. The program is based on a core microeconomics course taught on campus at The University of Queensland.