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Massachusetts Institute of Technology

AP® Microeconomics

Massachusetts Institute of Technology via edX

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Overview

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Want to learn how individuals and businesses make the decisions that drive our economy - and use those skills to ace the Microeconomics AP® exam? This is the course for you!

This economics course is an introduction to basic microeconomic principles. You will learn how individuals make decisions ranging from what type of goods to buy to how many hours to work, and how firms make decisions ranging from how many workers to hire to what prices to charge. You will study how to evaluate economic outcomes from the perspective of efficiency and fairness, and discuss the proper role of the government in determining these outcomes.

This course will cover all material that is required for the Microeconomics AP® exam. It will cover this material through a mix of intuitive explanations, real-world applications, and graphical and mathematical supplements that explore the content in more depth. By the end of the course, not only will you have an understanding of the most important principles of microeconomics, but you’ll be able to use these principles to better understand the workings of the real world around you!

*Advanced Placement® and AP® are trademarks registered and/or owned by the College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, these offerings.

Syllabus

Unit 1. Basic Economic Concepts: Opportunity Cost, Consumer Preferences, Budget Constraints, Utility Maximization

Unit 2. Supply and Demand: Shifts of Supply and Demand, Elasticity, Income and Substitution Effects, Consumer and Producer Surplus, Taxes, International Trade

Unit 3. Production, Cost, and the Perfect Competition Model: Short-Run and Long-Run Production, Short-Run and Long-Run Supply, Profit Maximization, Perfect Competition

Unit 4. Imperfect Competition: Monopoly, Oligopoly, Game Theory, Ologopolistic and Monopolistic Competition

Unit 5. Factor Markets: Labor Supply and Demand, Monopsony, Capital Markets

Unit 6. Market Failures and the Role of Government: Efficiency-Equity Tradeoff, Externalities, Redistribution, Public Goods

Taught by

Jonathan Gruber

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Reviews

4.7 rating, based on 35 Class Central reviews

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  • Anonymous
    This course was well organised and well taught. What it lacked, and what caused me to drop it after a few weeks, was its total lack of any critical view of its subject. There was no irony and no critical thought as we plunged on through the sea of life valued solely in terms of money. Capitalism has many achievements but it is ruining the eco structure of life on Earth and producing untold misery to those outside its glittering towers. This should be made more clear.
  • Anonymous
    I took this class to prepare me for the 2018 AP Mirco exam. The content was terrific; all the concepts were presented at a very easily understood level and then applied to more difficult, real-life topics. All of the lectures were engaging, so learning the material was enjoyable. The questions that supplemented each lesson were excellent overviews of key concepts to know to be success with the content of microeconomics. Very much loved the course, and I would be interested in taking similar courses if offered.
  • Anonymous
    It is probably the best course I have done online. The examples are easy to understand and the content of the course is necessary for any job you are doing now or in the future. If you are interested in economics, I highly recommend you to do this course. You also can search for the professor Jonathan Gruber of MIT, who is the teacher of this course, then you will realize the quality this course offers you.
  • Anonymous
    Fascinating, fun, accessible course about the basics of microeconomics. It helped me think about my own life -- should I buy a new pair of jeans? Does it make more sense to work or get a degree? Great instructor!
  • Anonymous
    This course is simply amazing, the professor is very enthusiastic and the examples are very simple but precise. It totally worth to take the course because it make me understand some basic truths about the world with the tool of opportunity cost and the economical analysis.
  • Anonymous
    While I have not completed the course I certainly intend to do so. Its a great course. The lecturer is interesting and even online, engaging. The materials are very well designed and the tests just right. I thoroughly recommend the course to anyone wanting to master the basics of microeconomics.
  • Anonymous
    I have been on this course and I'm not really a big fan of online learning but I really must say that the content in this course is absolutely stunning - it gains your attention almost instantly and keeps you interested the whole way throughout. The material is very interactive and uses examples that are very relatable and the information provided is very easy to contextualise and make assimilations with the day to day activities that we all do.

    Overall: thoroughly impressed
  • Anonymous
    I am currently in grade 9 in 2020/4/30 and completed the course, i rushed through it and got through it quickly because was bored at home and wanted to learn more. Even without taking any other courses i know this one is really beneficial for learning A lot about microeconomics. And the way that things are explained are amazing. You can either rush through it in 4 weeks like i did or you can finish it week by week which will have you finishing up in August
  • Anonymous
    I'm grateful to EdX and MITx for providing this course. It was extremely thought-provoking and really helped me a lot to learn the basics of microeconomics. In my country, schools don't provide AP's, so this was a totally new and amazing experience. The professor makes the lessons intriguing by giving examples which are applicable in our daily lives. It was the best course I've ever come across, so to speak.
  • Anonymous
    I have taken this course recently. This is best course to understand basics of microeconomics. I would say this is a must have course to understand how industries decision making works , demand-supply decisions, and how government decisions effect welfare of the society.

    Thanks very much to create such a wonderful course!!!
  • Anonymous
    Very fun, interesting course! It's about how people decide what to buy, and how companies decide how many workers to hire, and stuff like that. The lectures are clear and go over the material for AP microeconomics. There are also fun supplemental videos that talk about how the concepts in the course work in the real world.
  • Anonymous
    I took this class over winter break and plan on taking the CLEP to get college credit. It was really easy to follow along and very manageable. The examples in the lecture videos were interesting and relevant! It was my first time taking a full course online, and it was a great experience.
  • Anonymous
    The course was really well taught and it helped me to better understand the other Microeconomics course on edX taught by the same professor. The teaching was well broken down and related to real life happenings and it really made sense to a newbie in Microeconomics like me.
  • Anonymous
    The course is far more time consuming and less interesting than I expected – with long winded and ineffective explanations.

    It swerved between the simplistic and the unnecessarily complex and many 'obvious' possible explanations were ignored altogether.
  • Anonymous
    Awesome course. Everything is precise and to the point and the analogies that are used explain the point well. The best part about this course are the super short (approx 5 min) videos instead of the long and boring videos seen in some other courses.
  • Anonymous
    Excellent course that is clearly explained and paced very well. The concepts are revisited repeatedly throughout the course to continue to refresh and expand upon understanding. Nice use of graphics and visuals throughout to keep learners engaged.
  • Anonymous
    Excellent course. A little challenging but very accessable to me as a newbee to economics. Good clear lectures with good tied-in examples from real life. I would recommend this course to anyone who wants an overview of Microeconomics.
  • Anonymous
    This is the best course I have taken online as of yet,the subject , the educator and the teaching pattern was super fabulous and most importantly very effective for me.Thank you MITx and Edx for the course
  • Anonymous
    Course made me curious and therefore enrolled for it. Now I am glad that I did. It's very lucid, accessible while remaining fully objective. Kind of course that makes economics interesting to curious minds
  • Anonymous
    Great course. It's fun, accessible, pretty painless. The topics are all really relevant to everyday life -- why we buy stuff, why companies sell stuff, and so on. The real world examples are great.
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