All goods and services are subject to scarcity at some level, which requires that society develop some allocation mechanism to determine who gets what. Over recorded history, these allocation rules were usually command based, meaning that the king or the emperor would decide. In contemporary times, most countries have turned to market-based allocation systems. In markets, prices act as rationing devices, encouraging or discouraging production and encouraging or discouraging consumption to find an equilibrium allocation of resources. To understand this process, businesses construct demand curves to capture consumer behavior and consider supply curves to capture producer behavior. The resulting equilibrium price “rations” the scarce commodity.
This course is part of the Managerial Economics and Business Analysis Specialization
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Managerial Economics and Business Analysis SpecializationUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignAbout this Course
Skills you will gain
Offered by
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a world leader in research, teaching and public engagement, distinguished by the breadth of its programs, broad academic excellence, and internationally renowned faculty and alumni. Illinois serves the world by creating knowledge, preparing students for lives of impact, and finding solutions to critical societal needs.
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Syllabus - What you will learn from this course
Course Orientation
You will become familiar with the course, your classmates, and our learning environment. The orientation will also help you obtain the technical skills required for the course.
Module 1: Scarcity, Allocation, and Markets
The fundamental problem of scarcity challenges us to think about an allocation mechanism to determine what is produced and who consumes it. We will discuss scarcity and allocation mechanisms. In this course, we will focus on markets and prices as the solution to this resource allocation problem.
Module 2: Government Intervention in Markets
Markets are frequent targets of governments. This module will introduce government policy intervention into the market. This intervention can be direct control of prices or it could be indirect price pressure through the imposition of taxes or subsidies. Both forms of intervention are impacted by elasticity.
Module 3: Firms, Production, and Costs
This module will introduce cost theory. Firms are interested in producing profits, which are the residuals when costs are subtracted from revenue. Earlier modules constructed demand curves. They give us an idea of how many units of product we can sell at different prices; this would be firm revenue. We will work to understand inputs, production, and costs.
Module 4: Firm Behavior
The firm goal of profit maximization requires an understanding of costs and revenues. In this module, we will see how a firm optimally responds to a given market price by finding the profit maximizing output. The level of profits at this maximum profit point will help determine short run equilibrium.
Reviews
TOP REVIEWS FROM FIRM LEVEL ECONOMICS: CONSUMER AND PRODUCER BEHAVIOR
In the beginning I thought this was going to be a very basic course, but the way the professor explained the topics really make it interesting a practical, going beyond the classical economic theory.
This was awesome. I did not know Firm Level Economics when I joined this course. The explanations were simple and Prof DeBrock explained really difficult concepts in a very easy to understand manner.
Larry is one of my all time favorite professors. No one teaches price theory like him. He makes the material entertaining and creates an enjoyable learning experience. I wish he taught more courses.
Had lot of fun learning in this course. Although I had a basic concept of economics but with the help of this course I now have a clear and better understanding on Consumer and producer behavior.
About the Managerial Economics and Business Analysis Specialization
In order to effectively manage and operate a business, managers and leaders need to understand the market characteristics and economic environment in which they operate. In this specialization, you will build a solid understanding of the operation of markets and the macro-economic environment with real-world examples. You will be able to identify firm and country-level economic factors that impact business decisions, develop an analytical framework using statistical tools, and apply economic theory and data in the analysis of business environment and trends to make effective business decisions.
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