微观经济学原理

课程概况

本课程将介绍在较大的经济体系之下，个人决策者包括消费者和生产者所具备的功能。课程将侧重于产品市场的性质与功能、竞争与垄断等不定环境下的厂商理论以及政府在经济效率促进中所扮演的角色。本课有中文字幕

多数人都会误以为经济仅仅是对金钱的研究。我在此课程中的首要目标就是要打破这一观念。事实上，在过去的50年，经济学家已经解决了一些对于人类来说最有趣和最重要的问题。比如以下的几个例子：

爱情与婚姻
为什么离婚率那么高，我们应该怎样降低离婚率？

关于环境
为什么会有这么多的污染？
濒危物种有什么价值？

关于犯罪
将大麻合法化会降低犯罪率吗？

关于劳动力市场
提高联邦最低薪酬标准会导致人们失业吗？
在过去的40年，为什么会有如此多的妇女进入劳动力市场？

关于那些您该忧虑的事情
为什么大学教育是一项聪明的投资？亦或者不是呢？
总统候选人为何没能抓住大学费用这一关键问题呢？

关于许多其它的事情
学券制是否会改善公共教育？
为什么一个决议草案就会破坏军队？
如何测量一个棒球比赛场地？
为什么coursera会免费开放这门课程？

我们将会考虑的其他问题：
经济学家会做些什么？以及他们奇怪的思维方式是什么？（基本概念，建模和贸易）
在市场经济中，决定价格和数量的因素是什么？（供给和需求）
自由市场经济与社会福利之间的有何关系？（市场效率和政府干预）
税收的分配效应是什么？（弹性和税收）
公司的生产与成本有何关系呢？（生产和费用）
竞争型的企业是如何选择适合自己的高效产出水平的？（有竞争力的输出）
具有市场影响力的企业的定价策略是什么？（有市场影响力的企业）
多少污染才算重大污染呢？（公共产品、公共资源和外在因素）

课程期间，我们将会讨论许多（或更多）这些问题。我的主要目标是将向您展示经济学家的思维方式以及如何使用该系统回答相关问题，和其他对于人类来说最重要的问题，并分析您在课后生活中的一切事情。最后您很快会找到答案，我相信一切都是经济学！

This course offers an introduction to the functions of individual decision-makers—both consumers and producers—within the larger economic system. Emphasis is on the nature and functions of product markets, the theory of the firm under varying conditions of competition and monopoly, and the role of government in promoting efficiency in the economy.

Most people make the incorrect assumption that economics is ONLY the study of money. My primary goal in this course is to shatter this belief. During this course, we will be addressing the above questions as well as many more relating to:

-the environment
-love and marriage
-crime
-labor markets
-education
-politics
-sports
-business

My main goal is to show you the way economists think and how to use this analytical system to answer questions related not only to these and other important human issues, but to anything you end up doing with your life after this class. After all, as you will quickly find out, I believe that everything is economics!

课程大纲

第一周: 基本概念、建模和贸易
Welcome to your first week in Microeconomics Principles! As you will quickly see, the things you learn in this class will probably help you see the world in a different way. Economics is not just about money, as you may have incorrectly assumed. On the contrary, as you will learn in this lesson, economics is about how society distributes scarce resources. And, since almost anything in the world is a scarce resource, from fossil fuels to nice guys, we can apply the rules of economics to pretty much anything.

第二周: 供给和需求
Welcome to your second week in Microeconomics Principles! This module we will cover the hallmark framework of the field: the supply and demand model. I am sure that if you knew any economics words before enrolling in this course those two words were supply and demand. This module you will finally learn what all the fuss is about.

第三周: 市场效率与政府干预
Welcome to Week 3! Last module we introduced the supply and demand model to explain how free markets work. One of the main concepts we learned about free markets was that they tend to gravitate toward an “equilibrium” price and quantity. This module we will use the same conceptual model to answer one important question: Are free markets the best way to distribute society’s resources?

第四周: 弹性和税收
Welcome to the fourth week! This module we will cover one of my favorite economics concepts: elasticity. It is one of my favorites because of how useful it is to analyze policy implications, as well as its usefulness for business managers. This will be obvious to you when you read one of the discussion topics for this module: Should we legalize marijuana?

第五周: 生产和成本
Welcome to your fifth week! This module we will begin covering the theory of the firm, which will take us basically three modules to finish. Economists call this section of the course, "The Economics of the Lemonade Stand." And that title makes perfect sense, since the concepts we cover can be used by anyone, from someone owning a lemonade stand, to a car manufacturing company, to a hair salon, to a burrito stand, etc.

第六周: 有竞争力的产品
Welcome to your sixth week! This module we continue our discussion of the firm by focusing on those firms working in a perfectly competitive (or competitive) environment.

第七周: 有市场影响力的企业
So, why is it that when you fly the person sitting next to you in the plane probably paid a different price for the ticket than what you paid for it? And why does Starbucks charge so much for its coffee even though you can buy coffee at Dunkin’ Donuts for almost half of that price? This module we are finishing our discussion of the firm by focusing on cases that should be more familiar to you than the perfect competition examples we have been using.

第八周:公共产品、共同的资源和外部因素
And so we have arrived at the last week. This course has gone too fast! This module we will be discussing market failures. A market failure is a situation when the market does not do a good job of distributing resources among members of society. In fact, in all of these cases the market IS the problem.