Microeconomics and Policy Analysis I

The objective of Microeconomics and Policy Analysis I is to ensure that students can use an economic framework to analyze policy choices, including those related to the environment. Students will be expected to understand, apply, and critique microeconomic models that inform economic and environmental policy. By the end of the semester, students will be expected to use economic concepts fluently to advocate various public policy positions.

We will begin with the big picture: how did economics evolve, what a capitalist economy is, and how do we think about it? We will then focus on tools for understanding core institutions such as markets, individual workers and consumers, and firms. We describe simple supply-demand relationships and apply these to economic problems. We introduce the concepts of opportunity cost and choice, which are fundamental to an economic framework for public policy. We then examine basic tools used by economists. We examine in detail the underlying theory of consumers and producers necessary to derive supply and demand relationships. This detailed analysis facilitates an intelligent application and critique of these basic economic tools.

We will incorporate environmental examples throughout the class, but this is not a class on environmental economics. It will introduce you to microeconomics more generally, and give you a view of the economy interacting with lots of other political, social, and environmental factors.