Overview

Are you interested in obtaining a solid background in economics?

This economics course offers a thorough view of markets, including their strengths and failures. You will learn how to view markets from an economist’s perspective to help you better understand the most relevant economic problems.

This course follows a rigorous approach that combines visual arguments with realistic examples to help you connect core economic concepts with your own experience.

At the end of this course, you will be able to answer questions like:

Why do most people in rich countries have a mortgage and why is it a problem that those in the developing world do not?
Why is the environment one of the most challenging problems of modern societies?
How could we estimate the economic impact of cannabis legalization?

The only required knowledge is certain familiarity with graph reading and basic high school mathematics.

Acerca de este curso
¿Estás interesado en obtener una base sólida en economía?

Este curso te ofrece una cuidadosa revisión del funcionamiento de los mercados, incluyendo sus ventajas y debilidades. Aprenderás cómo ver los mercados desde el punto de vista de una economista para tener una mejor visión de los problemas económicos más relevantes.
Este curso sigue un enfoque riguroso que combina argumentos visuales con ejemplos realistas que te permitirán conectar los conceptos económicos principales con tu propia experiencia.

Al finalizar podrás resolver preguntas como:

¿Por qué la gente de los países ricos tiene una hipoteca mientras que esto no ocurre en los países en desarrollo? ¿Es esto síntoma de un problema?
¿Por qué el medio ambiente es uno de los mayores problemas para las sociedades modernas?
¿Cómo podemos calcular el impacto económico de la legalización del cannabis?

El único requisito para este curso es familiaridad con lectura de gráficos y conocimientos básicos de matemáticas de bachillerato. Aunque el curso está en inglés, dispondrás de subtítulos en español para todos los vídeos y una copia de las transparencias usadas en español.

Syllabus

Week 1: Introduction
Scarcity, opportunity cost, efficiency and equity, how are resources allocated in reality? Theories, models and assumptions. Model I of international trade: how countries trade what they have? Model II of international trade: how countries specialize? Some useful economic concepts.

Week 2: The Demand
The market. The model of perfect competition. Other market structures. The demand (I): Introduction. The demand (II): The unit-demand case. The demand (III): The general case. Marginal utilities. Market demands. Linear demands. Movements and shifts.

Week 3: The Supply
The unit-supply case. The costs. The general case. Movements and shifts. Elasticities (I): Definitions. Elasticities (II): applications.

Week 4: The equilibrium
Definition. The relevance of the equilibrium: logical and experimental support. Applications of the equilibrium (I): comparative statics. Applications of the equilibrium (II): welfare analysis. Measuring welfare. Estimating demand and supply in reality.

Week 5: Government intervention
Regulated prices. Taxes (I): classification. Taxes (II): analysis. Taxes (III): welfare. Taxes (IV): the incidence of a tax. Taxes (V): formal analysis.

Week 6: Market failures (I)
Introduction to market failures. Market power (I): definition. Market power (II): a model. Market power (III): welfare analysis. Market power (IV): comparative statics. Market power (V): barriers to entry. Market power (VI): solutions. Asymmetric information. Adverse selection. Moral hazard.

Week 7: Market failures (II)
Externalities (I). Classification of externalities. Externalities (II) Private solutions to externalities. Externalities (III) Public solutions to externalities. Public goods (I): definition. Public goods (II): analysis.