Week 4 — Readings & Resources

Course: Principles of Microeconomics (ECON 1) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Kessler
Focus: Supply & Market Equilibrium · Objective 2

Everything below is a link to a free external resource — nothing is embedded, copied, or downloaded. Links were verified live at build time; if one ever rots, the per-term update re-checks them. (Canvas: a Page of links + ExternalUrl module items.)

📖 Read (≈20 min)

1. OpenStax, Principles of Microeconomics 3e — Ch. 3, "Demand and Supply." Focus on §3.2 Supply and §3.3 Equilibrium — Where Demand and Supply Intersect.
   🔗 https://openstax.org/details/books/principles-microeconomics-3e
   Supply schedules, the law of supply, supply shifters, solving for equilibrium, surplus and shortage. This is the week's core reading.

2. Khan Academy — Microeconomics → "Supply, demand, and market equilibrium." Start with Supply and demand and Market equilibrium.
   🔗 https://www.khanacademy.org/economics-finance-domain/microeconomics
   Short worked examples with practice questions you can self-check.

3. OpenStax, Principles of Microeconomics 3e — Ch. 3, §3.4 "Changes in Equilibrium Price and Quantity: The Four-Step Process."
   🔗 https://openstax.org/details/books/principles-microeconomics-3e
   The four-step comparative-statics method we use in class: identify → shift → new equilibrium → interpret.

▶️ Watch (≈15 min)

4. CrashCourse Economics #4 — "Supply and Demand." (Adriene Hill & Jacob Clifford)
   🔗 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtPNZwz5_o_5uirJ8gQXnhEO
   Episode 4 of the playlist — covers law of supply, the market equilibrium, and comparative statics. ~10 min.

5. Marginal Revolution University (MRU) — Principles of Economics: Microeconomics, unit "Supply and Demand." Look for the supply and equilibrium videos.
   🔗 https://mru.org/courses/principles-economics-microeconomics
   Tyler Cowen & Alex Tabarrok — clear, short clips on supply shifters and market-clearing.

🛠️ Tools for this week (links only)

6. Desmos Graphing Calculator — you'll plot Qd and Qs curves and find their intersection in the Workshop.
   🔗 https://www.desmos.com/calculator
   Free, no account needed. Try typing y = (100 - x)/2 (demand) and y = (x + 20)/4 (original supply) to see the equilibrium at (60, 20), then add y = (x - 10)/4 (new supply after the shift) to see the new equilibrium at (70, 15).

7. FRED — Federal Reserve Economic Data — real-world price and quantity data for any good you're curious about.
   🔗 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/
   Optional: search for housing prices or commodity prices to see supply-and-demand in action.

Why these earn the click: OpenStax Ch. 3 is the spine of Weeks 3–4; CrashCourse Episode 4 ties supply to demand in one shot; MRU's clips are the fastest path to the intuition; Khan gives self-check practice; Desmos is your workshop tool for plotting both equilibria this week.