Week 14 — Readings & Resources

Course: Principles of Microeconomics (ECON 1) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Kessler
Focus: Externalities, Public Goods & Market Failure · Objective 8

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. 12, "Environmental Protection and Negative Externalities"
   🔗 https://openstax.org/details/books/principles-microeconomics-3e
   The core negative-externality diagram: MPC vs. MSC, the social optimum, and the Pigouvian tax. This is the primary reading for the workshop and quiz.

2. OpenStax, Principles of Microeconomics 3e — Ch. 13, "Positive Externalities and Public Goods"
   🔗 https://openstax.org/details/books/principles-microeconomics-3e
   Positive externalities, subsidies, the public-goods definition (non-rival + non-excludable), and the free-rider problem. Also covers the rival/excludable grid.

3. Khan Academy — Microeconomics → "Market failure and the role of government." Read/skim the Externalities and Public goods sections.
   🔗 https://www.khanacademy.org/economics-finance-domain/microeconomics
   Short worked examples with practice questions — good self-check before the quiz.

Watch (≈15 min)

4. CrashCourse Economics #23 — "Externalities." (Adriene Hill & Jacob Clifford)
   🔗 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtPNZwz5_o_5uirJ8gQXnhEO
   Episode 23 of the playlist — negative and positive externalities, Pigouvian taxes, and a clean intro to public goods. ~10 min.

5. Marginal Revolution University (MRU) — Principles of Economics: Microeconomics, unit "Externalities."
   🔗 https://mru.org/courses/principles-economics-microeconomics
   Tyler Cowen & Alex Tabarrok's externality videos — the social cost diagram and applications. Watch the 2–3 clips in the externalities unit.

Tools for this week (links only)

6. Desmos Graphing Calculator — you'll plot the MB, MPC, and MSC lines in the Workshop.
   🔗 https://www.desmos.com/calculator
   Free, no account needed. Try graphing y = 40 - x, y = 4 + 0.5x, and y = 10 + 0.5x on the same axes to see the three curves.

7. FRED — Federal Reserve Economic Data — links to real-world emissions and environmental data for the Discussion.
   🔗 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/
   Browse if you want real-world context for the carbon-pricing discussion.

Why these earn the click: OpenStax Ch. 12–13 are the spine of the week and map directly to the quiz and workshop; CrashCourse and MRU give you the same diagrams in voice and motion; Khan gives self-check practice; Desmos is your graphing tool for Workshop 14.