Week 9 — Readings & Resources

Course: Principles of Microeconomics (ECON 1) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Kessler
Focus: Production & Costs · Objective 5

Everything below is a link to a free external resource — nothing is embedded, copied, or downloaded. Links were verified 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. 7, "Production, Costs and Industry Structure" (§7.1 Explicit and Implicit Costs; §7.2 The Structure of Costs in the Short Run)
   🔗 https://openstax.org/details/books/principles-microeconomics-3e
   The core reading for this week: FC vs. VC, TC, the four per-unit cost curves (AFC, AVC, ATC, MC), and why ATC is U-shaped. Read through the cost tables and confirm the numbers against your spreadsheet.

2. Khan Academy — Microeconomics → "Production & Costs." Work through Fixed, variable, and marginal cost and Marginal cost and average total cost.
   🔗 https://www.khanacademy.org/economics-finance-domain/microeconomics
   Short video lessons with worked cost tables and practice questions — good prep for the workshop.

3. OpenStax, Principles of Microeconomics 3e — Ch. 7, §7.3 "Costs in the Long Run" (optional — skim for context on the short-run/long-run distinction)
   🔗 https://openstax.org/details/books/principles-microeconomics-3e

▶️ Watch (≈15 min)

4. CrashCourse Economics #6 — "Productivity and Growth." (Adriene Hill & Jacob Clifford)
   🔗 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtPNZwz5_o_5uirJ8gQXnhEO
   Episode 6 of the playlist — covers production, productivity, and the link to diminishing returns that underlies the cost curves. ≈10 min.

5. Marginal Revolution University (MRU) — Principles of Economics: Microeconomics, "Costs and Profit" unit.
   🔗 https://mru.org/courses/principles-economics-microeconomics
   Short video lectures on fixed and variable costs, and the difference between accounting and economic profit. Watch the 1–2 clips in this unit.

🛠️ Tools for this week (links only)

6. Google Sheets (or Excel) — enter the cost schedule as a spreadsheet for the Workshop. Free at https://sheets.google.com or use Excel.

7. Desmos Graphing Calculator — if you want to plot the cost curves (optional, no specific Desmos problem this week).
   🔗 https://www.desmos.com/calculator

8. (Optional) FRED — Federal Reserve Economic Data — real-world data on business costs and productivity.
   🔗 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/

Why these earn the click: OpenStax Ch. 7 §7.1–7.2 is the week's spine — work through the cost table line by line; CrashCourse and MRU put diminishing returns in context; Khan Academy gives quick practice before the quiz and workshop.