AP Microeconomics

Description

In this course, students explore the power of marginal thinking and apply it to common decisions that individuals and business firms encounter each day. Students examine, interpret, analyze, and model key microeconomics concepts and processes, from the shifting supply and demand for familiar products to the model of the labor market and how wages are determined. This rich course provides students with all the material and practice needed for success on the AP Exam. Yet, this is just the beginning—in the long run, taking AP Microeconomics will develop the critical thinking and analytical skills that empower students for a lifetime.

Module 1: Basic Economic Skills and Concepts
Scarcity
Resource allocation
Economic systems
Production Possibilities Curve (Frontier)
Reading and constructing basic economics graphs
Comparative advantage and trade
Cost-benefit analysis
Marginal analysis and impact on consumer choice

Module 2: Supply and Demand
The law of demand and determinants of demand
The law of supply and determinants of supply
Price elasticity of demand
Price elasticity of supply
Cross-price and income elasticity
Market equilibrium
Constructing and interpreting market graphs
Economic surplus
Market disequilibrium
International trade and public policy

Module 3: Production, Cost, and the Perfect Competition Model
The production function
Short-run production costs
Long-run production costs
Types of profit
Profit maximization of the firm
A firm’s short-run production decisions
A firm’s long-run decisions to enter or exit a market
The perfectly competitive market model
Allocative and productive efficiency

Module 4: Imperfect Competition
Distinguishing imperfect from perfect competition
Characteristics of imperfectly competitive markets
The monopoly model
Basics of the natural monopoly model
Price discrimination in a monopoly
The monopolistic competition model
Oligopoly and game theory
Reading and analyzing a payoff matrix

Module 5: Factor Markets
Defining factor (resource) markets
Differentiating input from output markets
Identifying changes in factor demand and factor supply and outcomes
Profit maximization in a perfectly competitive factor market
The monopsony model

Module 6: Market Failure and the Role of Government
Socially optimal production
Defining market failure
Efficient versus inefficient market outcomes
Externalities
Public goods
Private goods
Effects of government intervention
Comparing government intervention in different market structures

Additional Course Notes:

AP courses may require that students purchase a textbook to complete the course. eLearning Academy does not offer the AP exams or issue a teacher code for exam registration.  You do not have to take the course to register for the exam.  The course is to help  you prepare for the exam.  When you register for the exam, you can register as a homeschooler without a teacher code. If you have questions about this process, please call us before paying for the course.

Prerequisites: Algebra 1 recommended

Suggested Grade Level: 11

Credits: 1