The sixth podcast in this series examines the law of demand. Those who love candy bars will find this lesson especially easy to digest. A demand curve is simply defined, as are the sorts of changes that might affect that curve—all in less than seven minutes.

Looking for engaging content for your economics courses? The Institute for Humane Studies has curated this collection of educational resources to help economics professors enrich their curriculum. Find videos, interactive games, reading lists, and more on everything from opportunity costs to trade policy. This collection is updated frequently with new content, so watch this space!

The Economy is a course in economics. Throughout, we start with a question or a problem about the economy—why the advent of capitalism is associated with a sharp increase in average living standards, for example—and then teach the tools of economics that contribute to an answer.

This course explores the theoretical and empirical perspectives on individual and industrial demand for energy, energy supply, energy markets, and public policies affecting energy markets. It discusses aspects of the oil, natural gas, electricity, and nuclear power sectors and examines energy tax, price regulation, deregulation, energy efficiency and policies for controlling emission.

Context Rich Problem using the concepts of excise tax incidence, elasticity of demand, and elasticity of supply. Students must determine which information is appropriate and which is extraneous to the problem.

In this video (6 minutes long) students will learn about how externalities can affect supply, demand and ultimately equilibrium. This video will aid in review of standard EFP. 3 since students will see how a supply and demand graph can shift as a result of costs / benefits of externalities.

The class forms a "Presidential Task Force" for a week, empowered by the president to find answers and make recommendations concerning the future of the national power grid. Task force members conduct daily debriefings with their research team and prepare a report and presentation of their findings for the president, using an actual policy document as a guide. Although this activity is geared towards fifth-grade and older students and Internet research capabilities are required, some portions may be appropriate for younger students.

Introduction to Energy and Earth Sciences is an introduction to microeconomic fundamentals with a focus on the applications of economics to energy and environmental markets. We will introduce the economic method of analysis to the environmental and resource questions facing society. We will learn about the market forces, supply and demand and how they are formed from two concepts of law of Diminishing Returns and Diminishing Marginal Utility. We extend our knowledge by exploring factors such as market dynamics and market equilibrium, government intervention and market power. At the end we will apply these concepts to real life examples and address Climate Change and Carbon Policy, Resource Scarcity and Energy Security, and Changes in the Electricity Business.

In Episode 10, young people who are looking for that first job can learn about the basics of the labor market in this country. A brief explanation is given of the roles played by education, supply, demand, productivity and government regulation.

The eighth episode of our podcast series answers a crucial economic question: Where do prices come from? Listeners discover that supply and demand work together like the two blades of a scissors to determine the market equilibrium – and the prices of the things you buy.

Microeconomics will ground you in - surprise - basic microeconomics-how markets function, how to think about allocating scarce resources among competing uses, what profit maximizing behavior means in industries with different numbers of competitors, how technology and trade reshapes the opportunities people face, and so on. We will apply economic ideas to understand current economic problems, including the housing bubble, the current unemployment situation (particularly for high school gradutes), how Google makes its money and why healthcare costs are rising so fast.

The purpose of this course is to provide the student with a fundamental understanding of the principles of macroeconomics. Macroeconomists study how a country's economy works and try to determine the best choices to improve the overall wellbeing of a nation. Typical topics include inflation (the overall level of prices), employment, fiscal policy (government taxing and spending), and money and banking (interest rates and lending policies). By studying macroeconomics and understanding the critical ideas and tools used to measure economic data, the student will have a better perspective on the issues and problems discussed in contemporary economics. Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to: Discuss key macroeconomic concerns, including national income accounting, saving and investment, and market forces; Describe the determinants of total output and the ways to measure nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as well as real GDP; Compare and contrast definitions of total employment and unemployment, the three forms of unemployment, and inflation; Explain different ways of computing the general movement in prices, and define the relationship between inflation and unemployment; Explain the model of aggregate demand and aggregate supply; Analyze the government's role in the economy and examine how it uses its fiscal policy and monetary policy to influence macroeconomic variables in order to enable macro and micro economic stability; Describe the mechanics of money supply in detail. They will specifically be able to identify different types of money; explain the money creation process, the money multiplier, and the process of interest rate determination; and discuss the role of the Federal Reserve System and its tools of monetary policy; Identify and analyze major theories of economic growth; Analyze various strategies for developing of less-developed nations; Present the concepts behind international trade. (Economics 102; See also: Business Administration 201)

The purpose of this course is to provide the student with a basic understanding of the principles of microeconomics. At its core, the study of economics deals with the choices and decisions that have to be made in order to manage scarce resources available to us. Microeconomics is the branch of economics that pertains to decisions made at the individual level, i.e. by individual consumers or individual firms, after evaluating resources, costs, and tradeoffs. "The economy" refers to the marketplace or system in which these choices interact with one another. In this course, the student will learn how and why these decisions are made and how they affect one another in the economy. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to: Think intuitively about economic problems; Identify how individual economic agents make rational choices given scarce resources and will know how to optimize the use of resources at hand; Understand some simplistic economic models related to Production, Trade, and the Circular Flow of Resources; Analyze and apply the mechanics of Demand and Supply for Individuals, Firms, and the Market; Apply the concept of Marginal Analysis in order to make optimal choices and identify whether the choices are 'efficient' or 'equitable'; Apply the concept of Elasticity as a measure of responsiveness to various variables; Identify the characteristic differences amongst various market structures, namely, Perfectly Competitive Markets, Non-Competitive Markets, and Imperfectly Competitive Markets and understand the differences in their operation; Analyze how the Demand and Supply technique works for the Resource Markets. (Economics 101; See also: Business Administration 200)

This introductory undergraduate course covers the fundamentals of microeconomics. Topics include supply and demand, market equilibrium, consumer theory, production and the behavior of firms, monopoly, oligopoly, welfare economics, public goods, and externalities. 
Chalk Radio Podcast
Prof. Jonathan Gruber was featured in an episode of OpenCourseWare's podcast, Chalk Radio. In the episode "Thinking Like an Economist," Prof. Gruber talks about how he engages students in 14.01 with accessible real world examples. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts.
MITx Online Version
This course is part of the Micromaster’s Program in Data, Economics, and Design of Policy through MITx Online. The course is entirely free to audit, though learners have the option to pay a fee, which is based on the learner's ability to pay, to take the proctored exam, and earn a course certificate. To access the course, create an MITx Online account and enroll in the course 14.100x Microeconomics.

This 3 minute video examines why a return to the Gold Standard is not a viable idea today. This video is a part of a series (Part 3) on the Gold Standard and Fiat Money Standard. In it, the FED examines the pros and cons to a return to the Gold Standard and the impact on consumer purchasing power. This video aligns with EPF. 6

The "quantum" of economics is the optimizing individual. All of economics ultimately boils down to the behavior of such individuals. Microeconomics studies their basic actions and interactions: individual markets, supply and demand, the impact of taxes, monopoly, etc. Macroeconomics then lumps together these individual markets to study national and international issues. In structure this book—which covers only microeconomics—is not unlike a hiking trip. We start out by putting our boots on and getting our gear together: in Part I we study the optimizing individual. Then we set out on our path and immediately find ourselves hacking through some pretty thick jungle: even simple interactions between just two people (Part II) can be very complicated! As we add even more people (in studying auctions, for example), things get even more complicated, and the jungle gets even thicker. Then a miracle occurs: we add even more people, and a complex situation suddenly becomes simple. After hacking through thick jungle, we find ourselves in a beautiful clearing: competitive markets (Part III) are remarkably easy to analyze and understand.

This course, offered by the MIT Center for Real Estate, focuses on developing an understanding of the macroeconomic factors that shape and influence markets for real property. We will develop the theory of land markets and locational choice. The material covered includes studies of changing economic activities, demographic trends, transportation and local government behavior as they affect real estate.

Pandemics, hurricanes, and other scientific events can alter the course of markets. Changes in technology can, too. The March 2021 issue of Page One Economics® explains the laws of supply and demand and uses graphs to show how price and quantity change when markets shift.

The seventh episode of our podcast series discusses the supply side of the market – the law of supply, slope of the curve and the difference between a change in supply and a change in quantity supplied.

This series of slides aids students in reviewing the determinants of supply and demand, provides an exercise for them to choose which of the curves shift and why, and allows them to determine which curve will shift given a market event.