Introduction to the economic way of thinking. Students examine scarcity, opportunity cost, trade-offs, and the basic questions every economic system must answer. Covers production possibilities, economic systems, and the role of incentives.
How individuals and markets make economic decisions. Topics include utility, marginal analysis, rational decision-making, and behavioural economics, together with supply and demand, market equilibrium, elasticity, production decisions and costs, market failure (externalities and public goods), and government intervention through taxes, subsidies, and regulation.
How markets coordinate production and competition. Covers production decisions and costs; perfect competition in the short and long run; monopoly pricing, output, and welfare effects; monopolistic competition and oligopoly; market failure through externalities and public goods; and government intervention through taxes, subsidies, and regulation.
The economy as a whole. Students study GDP, unemployment, inflation, business cycles, and the role of government through fiscal and monetary policy. Examines how central banks and governments stabilize the economy.
International trade and finance. Topics include comparative advantage, trade policy, exchange rates, and the impacts of globalization. Students evaluate trade agreements and the benefits and challenges of an interconnected world economy.