Introduction to Economics with Extensions

Textbook Readings

  1. OpenStax, Principles of Microeconomics 2e
    1. Chapter 1: Welcome to Economics!
      1. 1.1 What Is Economics, and Why Is It Important?
      2. 1.2 Microeconomics and Macroeconomics
      3. 1.3 How Economists Use Theories and Models to Understand Economic Issues
      4. 1.4 How To Organize Economies: An Overview of Economic Systems
    2. Chapter 2: Choice in a World of Scarcity
      1. 2.1 How Individuals Make Choices Based on Their Budget Constraint
      2. 2.2 The Production Possibilities Frontier and Social Choices
      3. 2.3 Confronting Objections to the Economic Approach

Videos

  1. Marginal Revolution University, Principles of Economics: Microeconomics
    1. Introduction to Economics
    2. Incentives
      1. A Price Is a Signal Wrapped up in an Incentive
      2. Information and Incentives
  2. Khan Academy, Microeconomics
    1. Basic Economic Concepts
      1. Introduction to Economics
      2. Economic Systems
      3. Production Possibilities Frontier
      4. Comparative Advantage and the Terms of Trade
  3. YouTube, mjmfoodie
    1. Episode 8: Opportunity Cost
    2. ..

Articles

  1. Incentives
    1. KFYR TV - North Dakota, "Blood Donation Centers Offering Extra Incentives"
    2. Economics Amplified (Podcast/Video Series from the Becker Friedman Institute)
      1. "Discussion Section: Understanding Incentives, Part 1, featuring Steven Levitt", 2018
      2. "Discussion Section: Understanding Incentives, Part 2, featuring Steven Levitt", 2018
    3. The Washington Post, "In the Era of Spellcheck and Auto-Correct, Does It Matter that My Son Can't Spell?", by Denn, 29 January 2019
    4. The Japan Times, "Japan enacts legislation making preschool education free in effort to boost low fertility rate", 10 May 2019
    5. The New York Times, "Economic Incentives Don’t Always Do What We Want Them To", by Duflo and Banerjee, 26 October 2019
  2. Marginal Analysis, Sunk Costs, and Diminishing Returns
    1. Eric Nielsen, 2005. "Jargon Alert : Sunk Cost", Econ Focus, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Winter, pages 1-6.
    2. Forbes, "Law Of Diminishing Returns Hits Social Media Companies", by Gerber, 2 April 2014
    3. Seekiing Alpha, "The Law Of Diminishing Returns And How It Relates To Investing", by Santos, 10 March 2015
    4. Business Insider, "The Law of Diminishing Returns", by Mercenary Trader, 13 December 2012
    5. NPR Planet Money, "The Diamond-Water Paradox", 25 July 2018, (Audio)
    6. Los Angeles Times, "Environmentally Minded Californians Love to Recycle — but It's No Longer Doing Any Good", by Skelton, 9 July 2018
    7. BBC, "The Trick to Learning When to Cut Your Losses", by Grant, 17 September 2018
    8. Harvard Business Review, "When to Stick with Something — and When to Quit", by Spicer, 28 September 2018
    9. The Atlantic, "Science Is Getting Less Bang for Its Buck", by Collison and Nielsen, 16 November 2018
    10. Reuters, "Harvesting in a Trade War: U.S. Crops Rot as Storage Costs Soar", by Weinraub, and Huffstutter, 21 November 2018
    11. Sofis, M. J., Lemley, S. M., Budney, A. J., Stanger, C., & Jarmolowicz, D. P. (2019). Persisting on the past: Cross-sectional and prospective associations between sunk cost propensity and cannabis use. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology. Advance online publication.
    12. Psychology Today, "The Best Time to Plant a Tree Was 20 Years Ago, No Matter", by Smith, 14 April 2015
  3. Opportunity Costs & Trade-Offs
    1. Eric Nielsen, 2004. "Jargon Alert : Opportunity Cost", Econ Focus, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Fall, pages 1-6.
    2. Slate, "Time Is Money", by Oster, 6 February 2013
    3. The New York Times, "The Opportunity Cost of Economics Education", by Frank, 1 September 2005
    4. Forbes, "The Opportunity Cost Of Marketing", by Silva, 26 July 2017
    5. HuffPost, "Understanding Opportunity Cost: How $200 Sneakers Could Cost You $75,000", by Marquit, 9 June 2016
    6. The Onion, "5-Year-Old Admits It Pretty Messed Up Spider-Man Visiting His Birthday Party When He Could Be Out Saving Lives", 29 August 2018
    7. CityLab, "Housing Can’t Be Both Affordable and a Good Investment", by Hertz, 19 November 2018

Podcasts

  1. Incentives
    1. Freakonomics Radio, Why Doesn’t Everyone Get the Flu Vaccine? (Ep. 191)
    2. Planet Money, Episode 573: Why Textbook Prices Keep Climbing
  2. Marginal Analysis, Sunk Costs, and Diminishing Returns
    1. Planet Money, Episode 571: Why Raising Money For Ebola Is Hard
  3. Opportunity Costs
    1. Freakonomics Radio, The Upside of Quitting (Ep. 42)