Week 6 — Readings & Resources

Course: Principles of Microeconomics (ECON 1) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Kessler
Focus: Consumer & Producer Surplus & Efficiency · Objective 4

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 (≈25 min)

1. OpenStax, Principles of Microeconomics 3e — Ch. 3, "Demand and Supply" (review §3.1–3.3 as needed for the diagram)
   🔗 https://openstax.org/details/books/principles-microeconomics-3e
   Background: the supply-and-demand diagram you'll be computing surplus on. A quick review of the equilibrium diagram helps before tackling the surplus areas.

2. OpenStax, Principles of Microeconomics 3e — Ch. 3, "Demand and Supply" (§3.4 "Price Ceilings and Price Floors" — preview; the surplus implications connect directly to Week 6 and Week 7)
   🔗 https://openstax.org/details/books/principles-microeconomics-3e
   The chapter section that shows what happens to CS and PS when a price is controlled — lays the groundwork for deadweight loss.

3. Khan Academy — Microeconomics → "Consumer and Producer Surplus." Read/work through the consumer surplus and producer surplus articles and practice questions.
   🔗 https://www.khanacademy.org/economics-finance-domain/microeconomics
   Excellent visual treatment of both triangles — worked examples with labeled diagrams and self-check questions.

▶️ 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 the supply-and-demand diagram and introduces the surplus concept visually. ~10 min.

5. Marginal Revolution University (MRU) — Principles of Economics: Microeconomics, "Consumer Surplus, Producer Surplus, and Efficiency."
   🔗 https://mru.org/courses/principles-economics-microeconomics
   Tyler Cowen & Alex Tabarrok's short videos on CS, PS, and why the competitive equilibrium is efficient. Highly recommended as a companion to the lecture.

🛠️ Tools for this week (links only)

6. Desmos Graphing Calculator — you'll plot the demand and supply curves and identify the surplus triangles in the Workshop.
   🔗 https://www.desmos.com/calculator
   Free, no account needed. Try graphing y = 20 - 0.5x and y = 4 + 0.5x to see this week's market.

7. (Optional) FRED — Federal Reserve Economic Data — explore real-world market data.
   🔗 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/
   Not required this week, but useful for seeing real price and quantity data underlying any market.

Why these earn the click: OpenStax Ch. 3 is the diagram foundation; Khan Academy's CS/PS section is the clearest visual treatment of the triangles; CrashCourse and MRU give the ideas in voice and motion; Desmos is your graphing tool for the Workshop.