Course: Principles of Microeconomics (ECON 1) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Kessler
Module: Week 16 of 16 · Fall 2026 · in-person, two 75-minute lectures
Objectives covered: cumulative — Objectives 1–8 (Weeks 1–15): scarcity & opportunity cost & the PPF; comparative advantage & gains from trade; demand, supply & market equilibrium; elasticity; consumer & producer surplus & efficiency; government intervention (price controls, taxes, subsidies, DWL); production & costs; perfect competition; monopoly; monopolistic competition & oligopoly & game theory; factor/labor markets; externalities, public goods, asymmetric information & behavioral economics.

This file holds two pieces: (A) the Module 16 Overview page ("Start Here") and (B) the Welcome Announcement that posts when the module opens. This is finals week — it works differently from a normal week. Dates assume a Tuesday/Thursday lecture pattern with the in-class review on Tue Dec 15; the Final window opens Mon Dec 14 and the exam is due six days later. Adjust day-of-week and times to match your section.

(A) Module 16 Overview — Start Here

Welcome to Week 16: Final Review & Exam

This is your home base for the week. Read it first, then work the checklist below from top to bottom. Everything you need is linked inside the module.

Heads-up: this is finals week, so it runs differently. There is no quiz, no discussion, no assignment, and no workshop this week — the comprehensive Final replaces all of them. The week is built to get you ready: we spend our class session reviewing the whole course, you work through a three-part prep kit, and you sit the exam.

The Final is cumulative over all eight objectives from Weeks 1–15 — scarcity, opportunity cost, and the PPF; comparative advantage and the gains from trade; demand, supply, and market equilibrium; elasticity and total revenue; consumer and producer surplus and efficiency; price controls, taxes, subsidies, and deadweight loss; production and short-run cost curves; perfect competition and the shutdown rule; monopoly and market power; monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and game theory; factor and labor markets; and externalities, public goods, asymmetric information, and behavioral biases.

The midterm already covered the first half (Objectives 1–4, Weeks 1–7), so the Final leans heaviest on the back half (Objectives 5–8, Weeks 9–15) — costs, market structures, factor markets, and market failure — but the first-half foundations (scarcity, supply and demand, elasticity, surplus) are the building blocks the later topics rest on, so they're fair game too.

The week's big question

"Across the whole course — demand and supply shifts, elasticity, surplus, tax incidence, cost curves, MR = MC, game theory, VMPL, and Pigouvian taxes — can I do the one move each topic requires, work the numbers cleanly, and avoid the mistake that sinks it?"

By the end of the week you'll have walked the entire Objective 1–8 arc once more, re-worked the quantitative pockets (equilibrium P & Q, PED via the midpoint formula, surplus triangles, tax incidence and DWL, cost table relationships, MR = MC and profit/DWL, game-theory payoff matrices, VMPL, Pigouvian tax sizing), found the exact spots where points get lost, and shown what you can do on the Final.

By the end of this week, you can…

Use this as a checklist. If you can do all eight out loud, you're ready for the exam.

• [ ] Scarcity & trade (Obj 1) — state the opportunity cost of a PPF point, explain why the frontier bows out, and compute opp-cost ratios to find each country's comparative advantage and a mutually-beneficial terms of trade.
• [ ] Supply & demand (Obj 2) — shift the right curve the right direction for any described shock; solve for equilibrium P and Q algebraically; tell a shift of a curve from a movement along it (the central trap of the course).
• [ ] Elasticity (Obj 3) — compute PED via the midpoint formula; classify elastic vs. inelastic; do the total-revenue test; tell elasticity from slope; classify YED and XED.
• [ ] Surplus & efficiency (Obj 4) — compute CS and PS as half-base-times-height triangles from a linear diagram; explain why total surplus is maximized at the competitive equilibrium.
• [ ] Government intervention (Obj 4) — identify whether a price control is binding and what it causes (ceiling below eq → shortage; floor above eq → surplus); compute buyer price, seller price, tax revenue, and DWL from a per-unit tax; state incidence falls more on the inelastic side.
• [ ] Production & costs (Obj 5) — complete a cost table (TC = FC + VC; MC = ΔTC; AVC = VC/Q; ATC = TC/Q; AFC = FC/Q); find min ATC and min AVC; explain why MC crosses ATC at its minimum.
• [ ] Perfect competition & monopoly (Obj 6) — for a competitive firm, find Q where P = MC; compute profit; apply the shutdown rule (P less than min AVC → shut); for a monopolist, derive MR from a linear demand and find Q where MR = MC, then read P off the demand curve (never off MR); compute DWL.
• [ ] Structures, labor & market failure (Obj 7 & 8) — find the dominant strategy and Nash equilibrium in a payoff matrix; compute VMPL = MPL × output price and find optimal hiring; name the Pigouvian tax equal to marginal external cost; classify goods by rival/excludable; distinguish adverse selection from moral hazard.

What's due this week, and what to do

Work these in order — each one gets you ready for the next.

There is no Quiz 16, no Discussion 16, no Assignment 16, and no Workshop 16 — the Final stands in for all of them. The Study Guide, Exam-Prep Tutorial, and Practice Final are your prep kit; the Final is what's graded.

A note on the AI prep tutorial: the Exam-Prep Tutorial works like every weekly tutorial — the chatbot teaches and quizzes you, and you judge its work. It will sometimes shift the wrong curve or shift it the wrong direction, flip an elasticity sign or use slope instead of the midpoint formula, misapply the shutdown rule, read P off MR instead of the demand curve, or confuse the Pigouvian tax with a subsidy; catching that is part of being ready. AI is allowed only for this prep tutorial — not on the Final itself.

Late policy reminder: 10% off per day late, and the exam window is firm. If life happens, reach out before the deadline.

How to succeed this week

• Review actively, not passively. Don't re-read notes — do the moves: solve for an equilibrium, compute an elasticity, compute a surplus triangle, impose a tax and find DWL, fill a cost table, find Q at MR = MC, solve a payoff matrix, compute VMPL.
• Re-work the quantitative pockets by hand. The Final has several calculation items. Re-derive each one until the steps are automatic.
• Lean into the back half. The midterm already tested Objectives 1–4, so the Final weights Objectives 5–8 most heavily — but the first-half foundations are the tools the later topics use.
• Lead with the idea, then the number. On the exam, name the move before the algebra: which curve shifts? is the control binding? where does MR = MC? what does the Pigouvian tax equal?
• Use the prep kit in order. Study Guide → Exam-Prep Tutorial → Practice Final.

You've already done the hard work across fifteen weeks. Come to class ready to review out loud. See you Tuesday.

(B) Welcome Announcement — Module 16

Release setting: post on the module's start day (offset = 0 days), i.e., Mon Dec 14, 2026 — not before.

Subject: Week 16 — Finals week: the whole course, one last time

Hi everyone,

Here we are — the last week. This one is different from the rest: it's finals week. There's no quiz, no discussion, no assignment, and no workshop — the comprehensive Final takes their place. Everything this week is built to get you ready and then let you show what fifteen weeks built.

Here's the shape of it: our class session (Tue Dec 15) is a fast, complete review of the whole course — scarcity and trade, supply and demand, elasticity, surplus, price controls and taxes, cost curves, market structures (competitive firm, monopoly, oligopoly), labor markets, externalities, and market failure. The exam is cumulative over Objectives 1–8; because the midterm already covered the first half, the Final leans heaviest on the back half (Objectives 5–8). Several items are quantitative (PED via midpoint formula, surplus triangles, tax incidence and DWL, cost-table relationships, MR = MC and profit, VMPL, Pigouvian tax), so re-work those by hand on scratch paper.

Your prep kit, in order: work the Study Guide first, then run the Exam-Prep Tutorial with an approved chatbot and submit the share link, then sit the Practice Final timed to find any soft spots.

The dates that matter:
1. Final — window opens Mon Dec 14, due six days later (25% of your grade; 25 items; AI not permitted).
2. Exam-Prep Tutorial — submit your chat share link before the Final closes.
3. In-class review — Tue Dec 15; come with questions.

A word as we close the term. When we started in Week 1, the whole promise was learning to interrogate an economic claim before believing it — to ask where the trade-off is, which curve shifts and why, and whether a claim is driven by facts or by values. Everything since has been that same instinct, sharpened eight different ways. You can do all eight now. I've genuinely enjoyed watching you argue with chatbots when they shift the wrong curve, read price off the MR line instead of the demand curve, or call a binding price floor what it produces (a surplus, not a shortage). This last exam is about naming the eight honest moves, working the numbers cleanly, and using them under one roof. You're ready.

Open the Start Here / Module Overview page first. Thank you for a terrific semester.

You've got this. Come with questions Tuesday,
Prof. Kessler