Week 1 · Readings & resources

Week 1 — Readings & Resources

Principles of Microeconomics Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 1 (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer — pick what helps, skip the rest.

How to use this page

This page has 9 items (3 readings and 6 videos). Allow 47–54 minutes for everything. Each group points back to the matching chapter section and class-session segment, so use the full menu when you want more, or take the quick path below.

Every video here has captions: turn them on with the CC button in the player. The chapter covers the same ideas in text.

Pick-one quick path (20–20 min total)

① What a choice really costs

Chapter 1, Section “Price a choice: scarcity and opportunity cost” · Session 1, Segment 1, “Scarcity and opportunity cost” · Remember: the real cost of a choice is the single best thing you give up, and your time counts.

Opportunity Cost — Econlib, The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics — a short signed encyclopedia entry that defines opportunity cost as the value of the best alternative use of a resource and works through the cost of going to school, where forgone earnings turn out to be a large part of the bill; compare its school example with the chapter's concert evening, where the forgone shift pay doubles the cost. (reading, 3–5 min)
Real-Life Examples of Opportunity Cost — Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Open Vault — a plain-language blog post that splits costs into the visible kind you pay and the hidden kind you give up, with everyday cases such as skipping study time for a movie and choosing which crop to plant; skim its savings calculator examples, which go beyond this week, and focus on the habit of asking what you give up. Use it while working through the Week-1 module overview. (reading, 7–10 min)
Intro to Economics: Crash Course Econ #1 — CrashCourse — two hosts introduce economics as the study of people and choices, explain the opportunity cost of watching the video itself, and name scarcity and the fact that everything has a cost as the field's two key assumptions; near the end they separate microeconomics from macroeconomics. Its real-world spending and budget figures are the hosts' examples, not course figures, so focus on the reasoning rather than the numbers. (video, 12 min) (captions: creator)

② Reading the frontier: slope, inside, outside, and growth

Chapter 1, Section “Draw the trade-off: the production possibilities frontier” · Session 1, Segment 2, “The production possibilities frontier” · Remember: on the frontier is efficient, inside is wasteful, and outside is out of reach with today's resources.

The Production Possibilities Frontier, Part 1 of 3: Economic Lowdown — Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis — an animated explainer that builds a frontier for a made-up island producing two goods, shows which combinations are attainable and which are not, and ends by reading a move along the frontier as an opportunity cost. Its frontier is drawn as a straight line, so notice how its cost per unit stays the same while the chapter's island frontier bows outward. (video, 5 min) (captions: creator)
Production Possibilities Curve (PPC) Review — Think Econ — a quick review that lists the model's simplifying assumptions, graphs a firm choosing between guitars and pianos, and reads the curve's bowed shape as a rising opportunity cost measured in the good given up; it calls the shape "concave", which is another name for the outward bow. (video, 4 min) (captions: creator)
The Production Possibilities Frontier, Part 2 of 3: Economic Lowdown — Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis — the series continues with combinations inside the frontier and then shows how more resources, better tools, and new skills shift the whole frontier outward, which it calls economic growth. It explains the inside of the frontier with recessions, a whole-economy idea this course leaves to macroeconomics, so focus on the section on shifting the frontier. (video, 5 min) (captions: creator)

③ Why a model leaves things out

Chapter 1, Section “Build a model: simplify on purpose, all else equal” · Session 2, Segment 6, “How economists model” · Remember: holding all else equal lets you study one cause at a time, even though the assumption is not literally true.

Microeconomic Theory Lesson 4: Ceteris Paribus — EZEconomics — a short whiteboard lesson that defines ceteris paribus as holding every other variable constant, then asks how the price of ice cream relates to the amount people buy and lists what has to stay fixed to see that link: the temperature, where the stand sits, and the time of year. Each of those would change sales on its own, which is the same reason the chapter holds the island's workers, weather, and tools fixed. Its price-and-amount link is a positive claim and a preview of the law of demand, which arrives in Week 3; for now, focus on why each left-out influence has to stay put. (video, 4 min) (captions: automatic)

④ Telling a testable claim from a value judgment

Chapter 1, Section “Sort the claims: positive versus normative statements” · Session 2, Segment 7, “Positive and normative statements” · Remember: if evidence could settle it, the statement is positive; if it rests on values, it is normative.

Economics: Normative vs Positive Statements — ArndtEcon — a four-minute talk built around one prop, a book. Saying the book is brown, or that it weighs 20 pounds, is a positive statement, because a look or a scale can test it, even when the test shows it is false; saying all books should weigh the same, or that everyone should have access to books, is normative, because no test can settle it, even when most people agree. Hold on to its main point: positive means testable, not true. It closes with a claim about reading more economics; sort that one yourself before it does. (video, 4 min) (captions: automatic)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

What Is Economics? — American Economic Association — the economics profession's own short description of the field as the study of scarcity, choices, and incentives, including the difference between microeconomics and macroeconomics; read the opening sections and skip the career and research links. (reading, 3–5 min)

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell your instructor and use the reference above in the meantime.

Provenance: Built with The Course Maker · samples.thecoursemaker.com