Unit 8 – Principles of Microeconomics

Instructor Image Kathryn Longstaff
17 Lessons
2 Quizzes
Lesson structure Description

Essential information:

  1. This unit runs for ten weeks with four hours of learning per week.
  2. Typically this is broken down into two two hour blocks of learning per week.
  3. Each lesson is typically resourced with a lesson plan, powerpoint, additional reading material, videos and an online quiz.
  4. The weekly quiz will aim to review learning content and may build in opportunities to respond to scenarios.
  5. In addition, students will be asked to comment on a discussion board.

Unit aim

This unit provides an introduction to a core area of economics known as microeconomics. Learners will look at economic problems in the ways economists think and work. They will need to apply their knowledge and understanding to familiar and unfamiliar contexts and demonstrate an awareness of current economic events and policies.

Unit introduction

In this unit, learners will consider how markets work, looking at how supply and demand interact to allocate resources in local, national, and international markets. They will learn how to apply supply and demand analysis to real-world situations and offer explanations of consumer behavior.

This will involve looking at how consumers act in a rational way to maximize utility and maximize profit and why consumers may not behave rationally.

Having investigated how markets work, learners will then look at market failure. They will look at the nature and causes of market failure before considering possible government intervention’s strengths and weaknesses to remedy market failures.

This unit will provide a coherent coverage of microeconomic content with learners drawing on local, national, and global contexts.

Learning outcomes and assessment criteria

To pass this unit, the evidence that the learner presents for assessment needs to demonstrate that they can meet all the learning outcomes for the unit. The assessment criteria determine the standard required to achieve the unit.

Grading Scheme

Assessment typeGrade percentage toward final grade
Mid-term exam35%
Individual report project on PowerPoint (week 9)30%
Final exam35%
Total100%

Detailed goals and objectives:

1. Examine the concept of opportunity cost and explain how to use it to improve decision-making in a wide variety of economic applications, including consumption, investment, employment, and production decisions.
2. Describe how specialization based on comparative advantage leads to higher productivity and living standards and evaluate protectionist arguments to the contrary.
3. Differentiate between capitalist and socialist systems of economic organization and assess their performance using a variety of financial criteria.
4. Apply supply and demand analysis to predict how businesses and consumers will respond to changing market conditions and public policies.
5. Explain the concept of price elasticity of demand and describe its major determinants.
6. Describe how differences in elasticity in different market segments can be exploited by businesses using multiple pricing strategies.
7. Evaluate the role played by prices in providing the incentives and information needed to produce a rational economic order.
8. Identify potential causes of inefficiency in both the political and market processes and explain their public policy implications.
9. Compare and contrast how microeconomics influences the pricing and employment decisions in both the short run and the long run.
10. Describe the nature and sources of economic profit (as distinct from accounting profit) and identify conditions under which the search for profit contributes to the general welfare of locals.
11. Differentiate between various market structures such as monopoly, pure competition, monopolistic competition, and oligopoly, and explain how these structures affect business strategy.
12. Analyze current value analysis to evaluate investment decisions.
13. Examine how worker preferences, market structure, labor regulations, taxation, and collective bargaining influence wages and employment.