3 Learning Outcomes
The content, assignments, and assessments for this course are aligned to the following learning outcomes. A full list of course learning outcomes can be viewed here: Macroeconomics Course Learning Outcomes.
Module 1: Economic Thinking
- Explain what economics is and explain why it is important
- Use mathematics in common economic applications
- Use graphs in common economic applications
Module 2: Choice in a World of Scarcity
- Explain the cost of choices and trade-offs
- Illustrate society’s trade-offs by using a production possibilities frontier, or curve
- Explain the assumption of rationality by individuals and firms
Module 3: Supply and Demand
- Describe and differentiate between major economic systems
- Explain the determinants of demand
- Explain the determinants of supply
- Explain and graphically illustrate market equilibrium, surplus and shortage
Module 4: Applications of Supply and Demand
- Analyze the economic effect of government setting price ceilings and floors
- Define, calculate, and illustrate consumer, producer, and total surplus
- Examine ways that supply and demand apply to labor and financial markets
Module 5: Elasticity
- Explain the concept of elasticity
- Explain the price elasticity of demand and price elasticity of supply, and compute both using the midpoint method
- Explain and calculate other elasticities using common economic variables
- Explain the relationship between a firm’s price elasticity of demand and total revenue
Module 6: Macroeconomic Measures: GDP and Economic Growth
- Define macroeconomics and explain how economic indicators like GDP are used to assess the state of the economy
- Differentiate between and calculate nominal and real GDP
- Describe economic growth
- Understand that economic growth is a relatively recent phenomenon, and identify key institutional factors that contribute to economic growth
Module 7: Macroeconomic Measures: Unemployment and Inflation
- Describe and calculate unemployment
- Examine causes and types of unemployment, including cyclical, frictional, structural, and natural unemployment
- Define inflation and explain how the rate of inflation is calculated
- Identify the consequences of inflation
Module 8: The Aggregate Demand-Aggregate Supply Model
- Use the AD-AS model to explain the equilibrium levels of real GDP and price level
- Examine factors that shift aggregate supply and aggregate demand
- Illustrate economic growth, unemployment, and inflation using the AS/AD model
Module 9: Keynesian and Neoclassical Economics
- Describe the tenets of Keynesian Economics
- Explain policy implications of Keynesian economics
- Understand the tenets of Neoclassical Economics
- Describe how the neoclassical model responds to fluctuations in the economy and explain policy recommendations
- Compare and contrast the Keynesian and Neoclassical perspectives
Module 10: The Income-Expenditure Model
- Use the expenditure output model to explain periods of recession and expansio