The fact of scarcity forces individuals, firms, and societies to choose among alternative uses – or allocations – of its limited resources. Accordingly, the first part of this summer course seeks to understand how economists model the choice process of individual consumers and firms, and how markets work to coordinate these choices. It also examines how well markets perform this function using the economist’s criterion of market efficiency.
Overall, this course focuses on microeconomics, with some topics from macroeconomics and international trade. It emphasizes the integration of theory, data, and judgment in the analysis of corporate decisions and public policy, and in the assessment of changing U.S. and international business environments.

This course is an introduction to economics for non-majors and political economy, with an emphasis on the moral and ethical problems that markets solve, and fail to solve. Taught by Professor Michael Munger of Duke University, this course includes full length lectures, links to readings, and a sample final exam.

The decades leading up to the Atlantic revolutions of the late eighteenth century were formative moments in the rise of capitalism. The novel instruments of credit, debt, and investment fashioned during this period proved to be enduring sources of financial innovation, but they also generated a great deal of political conflict, particularly during the revolutionary era itself.  This seminar examines the debates surrounding large-scale financial and trading corporations and considers the eighteenth century as a period of recurring financial crisis in which corporate power came into sustained and direct contact with emerging republican norms. The seminar ends with a look at the relationship between slavery and the rise of “modern” or “industrial” capitalism in the nineteenth century, as well as some of the critiques of capitalism that emerged out of that experience.

This 8 minute video will discuss the costs and benefits of a monopoly. It focuses on industries that typically have high R&D costs, like the pharmaceutical industry. This video will aid in the mastery of standard EPF. 2 (i)

Learn about how to represent a monopoly market graphically in this video. Topics covered include the profit-maximizing quantity, pricing decisions, and deadweight loss associated with monopolies.

This course uses theoretical models and empirical studies to help understand the economics behind various internet businesses. We will begin with a discussion of relevant topics from industrial organization (IO) including monopoly pricing, price discrimination, product differentiation, and barriers to entry. The main part of the course will be a discussion of a number of online businesses. In the context of those businesses, we will discuss extensions and applications of the ideas from the first section of the course.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:Explain how the inventions of the late nineteenth century contributed directly to industrial growth in AmericaIdentify the contributions of Andrew Carnegie, John Rockefeller, and J. P. Morgan to the new industrial order emerging in the late nineteenth centuryDescribe the visions, philosophies, and business methods of the leaders of the new industrial order

This course is built around practical instruction in the design and analysis of non-­digital games. It provides students the texts, tools, references, and historical context to analyze and compare game designs across a variety of genres. In teams, students design, develop, and thoroughly test their original games to better understand the interaction and evolution of game rules. Covers various genres and types of games, including sports, game shows, games of chance, card games, schoolyard games, board games, and role-­playing games.

This is a course in industrial organization, the study of firms in markets. Industrial organization focuses on firm behavior in imperfectly competitive markets, which appear to be far more common than the perfectly competitive markets that were the focus of your basic microeconomics course. This field analyzes the acquisition and use of market power by firms, strategic interactions among firms, and the role of government competition policy. We will approach this subject from both theoretical and applied perspectives.

Inventors of the AgeFrom Invention to Industrial GrowthBuilding Industrial America on the Backs of LaborA New American Consumer Culture

This video discusses the differences in a graph of marginal cost and marginal revenue for an imperfectly competitive firm compared to a perfectly competitive firm.

What is a monopoly? It turns out, it's more than just a board game. It's a terrible, terrible economic practice in which giant corporations dominate markets and hurt consumers. Except when it isn't. In some industries, monopolies are the most efficient way to do business. Utilities like electricity, water, and broadband internet access are probably less efficiently delivered in competitive markets. Come along, and let us monopolize your attention for a few minutes. You might learn something. And you might land on Free Parking.

Learn about the key differences between the two extremes of competition: monopolies and perfect competition.

Teaching market structures in a microeconomics class? These slides present graphs related to monopolistic competition, the market structure in which there are many firms that produce similar, but not identical, products and there are few barriers to entry. The slides illustrate firms' short-run decisions.

A monopolist might be pretty happy about its extraordinary profits, but these come at a cost for society. In this video we explore the welfare implications of a monopoly market. Created by Sal Khan.

A monopolist's marginal revenue curve is always less than its demand curve. We explore why using a numerical example in this video. Created by Sal Khan.

In this video we explore how a monopolist decides on the best quantity to produce and the price to charge for that quantity. Created by Sal Khan.

Teaching market structures in a microeconomics class? These slides present graphs related to monopoly, the market structure in which there is only one producer of a good or service and there are high barriers to entry. The slides illustrate firms' short-run decisions.

Using some basic calculus to show that marginal revenue has twice the slope of the demand curve for a monopolist. Created by Sal Khan.

The most common forms of competition you learn about in microeconomics are perfect competition, monopolies, oligopoly, monopsony, and monopolistic competition. In this video we briefly describe the key features of each.