Fundamentals of Economics

All business managers need a basic understanding of economics and must think critically about the impact of micro- and macro-economic events that can take a toll on any company. This course will take you through the basics of supply and demand, comparative advantage, costs and maximization of profit, money and banking, plus more. Topics in this course include:

• Opportunity cost and comparative advantage: concepts used to prove mutual advantage of individuals, businesses or countries specializing in things with which they have a comparative advantage and trading for the rest.
• Supply and demand models and how economists use them to analyze how buyers and sellers interact in the marketplace. Elasticity concepts are discussed as well as applications of the model of demand and supply, including price controls and tax analysis.
• Short run and long run economic costs of production concepts and the profit maximizing rule is applied to both a competitive business environment and a monopolistic business environment.
• Microeconomic foundations of consumers and businesses along with elements of macroeconomic behavior. Macroeconomics offers a set of tools and concepts that both economists and policymakers use to try to figure out the overall pulse of the economy: real gross domestic product, the national income identity, the consumer price index, the producer price index, the inflation rate, and the unemployment rate.
• Functions of money, the types of money, the classifications of the money supply, the central bank, the money creation process, and the monetary policy tools used by a central bank.
• Model of aggregate demand and aggregate supply used to analyze the economy-wide (or macro) effect of economic events. Inflationary gaps and deflationary gaps are discussed with fiscal policy and monetary policy tools to diminish the effect of an inflationary or a deflationary gap.

Register during daytime hours and take the course on your schedule.