COURSE OVERVIEW:

Economics is the science that studies how people and societies make decisions that allow them to get the most out of their limited resources. Because every country, every business and every person deals with constraints and limitations, economics is literally everywhere.

Economics is essentially a study of the usage of resources under specific constraints, all bound with an audacious hope that the subject under scrutiny is a rational entity which seeks to improve its overall well-being.

Two branches within the subject have evolved thus: microeconomics (individual choices) which deals with entities and the interaction between those entities, while macroeconomics (aggregate outcomes) deals with the entire economy as a whole.

A typical college student (or an overburdened husband?) appreciates the lessons of economics in day-to-day life. Semester books and carton of cigarettes (choices) are to be purchased with a limited amount of pocket money (constraints).

The aim of studying economics is to understand the decision process behind allocating the currently available resources, the needs always unlimited but resources being limited.

The fundamental assumption that we need to make for the whole economic system (as we know it today) to work is that human beings are motivated by pure self-interest and will take decisions that they think will make them ‘better off’ now or sometime in the future.

This course will help you quickly and easily understand economics for what it is – a serious science that studies a serious subject and has developed some seriously effective ways of explaining human behaviour out in the real world.

This course is divided into two parts.

The first part provides an explanation on what does Economics study? including: a quick peek at economic history, observing how people cope with scarcity, separating macroeconomics and microeconomics, growing the economy and avoiding recessions, understanding individual and firm behaviour and getting a grip on the graphs and models that economists love to use.

The second part discusses how to track consumer choices including: deciding what brings the most happiness, cataloguing the constraints that limit choice, modelling choice behaviour like an economist and evaluating the limitations of the choice model. Finally, we provide brief descriptions of the ideas put forth by eleven of the very best and most influential economists.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

By the end of this course, you will be able to understand:

·       What Economics is all about?

·       What does economics study?        

·       A little economic history

·       The institutions that led to higher living standards

·       What is Macroeconomics?

·       Framing economics as the science of scarcity

·       What causes recessions?

·       How economists measure the economy?         

·       How economists developed anti-recessionary policies?

·       How economists fought recessions with monetary and fiscal policies?

·       What is Microeconomics?

·       Balancing supply and demand in economics

·       Why competition is so great in the eyes of economists?

·       How firms that are forced to compete end up satisfying two wonderful conditions?

·       The problems caused by lack of competition   

·       How economists reformed property rights?      

·       How monopolies, oligopolies and poorly designed property rights all lead to what economists like to call market failures?

·       The two other common causes of market failure are asymmetric information and public goods

·       How economists use models and graphs?

·       How economists see that “Abstracting from reality” is a good thing?

·       The Law of Demand

·       How to create the demand curve?

·       How to use the demand curve to make predictions?

·       How to draw your own demand curve?

·       The economic choice model of human behaviour

·       The first stage of the economic model: The evaluation of options

·       How to use utility to measure happiness?        

·       How to take altruism and generosity into account?

·       The second stage of the economic choice model: The constraints and opportunities

·       Realising that self-interest can promote the common good

·       The resource constraints

·       The technology constraints

·       The time constraints

·       The unavoidable constraint

·       The third stage of the economic choice model: The cost-benefit analysis

·       The limitations and violations of the economist’s choice model

·       How to get rational about irrationality?    

·       Confusing marginal and average   

·       Famous economists

COURSE DURATION:

The typical duration of this course is approximately 2-3 hours to complete. Your enrolment is Valid for 12 Months. Start anytime and study at your own pace.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

You must have access to a computer or any mobile device with Adobe Acrobat Reader (free PDF Viewer) installed, to complete this course.

COURSE DELIVERY:

Purchase and download course content.

ASSESSMENT:

A simple 10-question true or false quiz with Unlimited Submission Attempts.

CERTIFICATION:

Upon course completion, you will receive a customised digital “Certificate of Completion”.