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Welcome to Intermediate Microeconomics!
This Web site is designed to support the teaching and learning
of Intermediate Microeconomic Theory (ECO 240), a required
course for economics majors at Illinois State University.
The navigation row on the top and bottom of each page contains
hyperlinks to the course's Main page, Information about
the course and periodic announcements, the course Syllabus,
Schedule, online Tutorials, Excel Workbooks, weekly online
Quizzes, and the course's WebBoard. There are also links
to a daily One-minute Paper survey form, current course
Grades, and some off-site Links to online Excel tutorials,
newspapers, and sources of economics data. Simply click
on a hyperlink in either navigation row to access one of
these Web pages.
The icons at top and bottom of the each page contain hyperlinks
to the previous page in the course Web site, the next page
in the course Web site, the site's home page, and a link
to the top of the current page.
"Where Do I Begin?"
After reading below about why you should be
interested in studying microeconomics (besides the fact
that it is a required course) you should explore the course
Web site. Begin your tour of the course Web site by going
to the Information page. This
is where you will find basic information on when and where
the class meets, who teaches this course, and how to contact
him! Also on this page is a link to periodic Announcements
that deliver timely information on changes to the course
or to the campus computing environment. Visit this page
daily.
Why Study Microeconomics?
Microeonomics deals with the cooperative social
behavior of individual economic agents. These agents include
consumers, workers, business firms, and even entire industries.
It studies how the economic decisions of these agents lead
to changes in the production of goods and services, the
prices of those goods and services, and the incomes received
by the workers in and owners of firms that produce the goods
and services.
Overall, the study of microeconomics presents
you with a way of thinking about such behavior:
"The theory of economics does not furnish
a body of settled conclusions immediately applicable to
policy. It is a method rather than a doctrine, an apparatus
of the mind, a technique of thinking which helps its possessor
to draw correct conclusions." (John Maynard Keynes)
In the process of learning this way of thinking
you will improve your analytical skills, your ability to
solve problems, and the quality of your decision making.
Such skills will be tremendously useful to you in future
courses and in the job market. It will also help you make
sense out of elements of the world around you that you could
not otherwise understand -- which is fun as well as useful.
In Intermediate Micro, we will apply the economic way of
thinking to help you understand how markets allocate resources
to where they are most wanted; why prices and wages rise
and fall; why businesses start up and fold under; how consumers
and managers decide the best way to allocate their budgets
so as to get the most goods or resources they can; why some
goods or services seem "too abundant" while others
seem "too rare"; and how governments can affect
the provision and prices of goods, services, and resources.
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