GECON 200 Macroeconomics and ECON 201 Microeconomics learning objectives

Upon completing principles of microeconomics, students should be able to do the following.

• Describe the basic economic problem of scarcity and to identify opportunity costs.
• Explain how prices allocate scarce resources and to predict price changes from changes in demand and supply.
• Measure and interpret elasticity and its relationship to total revenue changes.
• Describe consumer choice through utility theory and to understand its strengths and limitations.
• Characterize and identify economic costs of production.
• Identify different market structures and the consequent differences in firm behavior.
• Describe how markets can fail to achieve the optional allocation of scare resources and to identify alternative allocating mechanisms.
• Explain how wages, interest, rent and profits are determined and measured.
• Identify comparative advantages of nations and explain the patterns of internationaltrade.

Upon completing introduction to macroeconomics, students should be able to do the following.

• Define and measure major macroeconomic variables and describe their behavior over time.
• Use models of aggregate economic activity to characterize changes in aggregate prices and output.
• Evaluate the degree to which the various aggregate models fit the observed facts.
• Distinguish between conventional models and real business cycle models.
• Explain how government policies could be used in an effort to stabilize aggregate prices and output, and the limitations of these efforts.
• Describe how monetary policy is transmitted through credit markets to affect aggregate prices and output.
• Explain the effects of government debt on investment, capital formation, growth and the wealth of future generations.
• Identify the causes and cures for inflation and the effects of anti-inflation policies.
• Account for the sources of economic growth and differentiate between exogenous and endogenous theories of economic growth.
• Explain the role of international flows of goods, services and capital, and the effects of changes in exchange rates on imports and exports.
• Explain the interdependence of international economies and how disturbances in economic activity are transmitted across national boundaries.