Economics 101: Principles of Economics  

Announcements Next offered: Academic year 2000-01

 
Welcome to Econ.101! The goals of this course are to introduce you to economics and to help you develop and apply the "economic way of thinking." The economic way of thinking is a framework for critical analysis that you can apply to a wide variety of personal and social issues. It is a way of thinking that can help you clearly focus on both the gains and losses at stake in specific situations as well as the winners and losers who have a stake in the outcome. Some of the  questions we will address in the course include:

• How should you measure and compare the benefits and costs of your college education?
• What happens when the government restricts the behavior of market prices through                 rent controls, farm price supports, minimum wages and similar policies?
• How much pollution is "too much," and what should we do to reduce it?
• Women typically earn less than men, and disadvantaged minorities typically earn less than whites. Why? What intervention options do we have? What are the likely consequences of these options?
• How do Federal government spending and tax policies affect the nation's unemployment, inflation and economic growth?
• What is the "Fed," and why should we care about it?
• How did the U.S. shift from the world's largest creditor nation in 1981 to the world's largest debtor nation today, and what, if anything,  should we do about it?

Econ.101 is structured to give you a wide range of opportunities to develop and practice your economic skills, through short writing assignments, problem sets, collaborative learning activities (where you work in groups with your classmates), and class discussions/presentations. By the end of the term, I hope you will be prepared to use the economic way to thinking to help make your own life more productive, responsible, and rewarding.
    Economics 101 revolves around an examination of the market system--how it works, when and why it doesn't work, and what we can do to try to make it work better. Understanding the economic principles that govern markets will help you develop a method for coming up with well-reasoned answers to questions like those listed above. It will also improve your ability to read about current events in the popular press, understand the economic issues involved, and evaluate what is being said and done--in other words, to separate the sense from the nonsense.
 

Jim Whitney

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Jim Whitney

Economics Department

Occidental College