| ::Home Course Resources Principles of Microeconomics
The lectures and readings in this course are designed to
familiarize students with the fundamentals of microeconomic
theory. The central focus of the course is on understanding the
process of price formation in a free exchange economy. Market
institutions such as the firm, advertising, profit/loss mechanism,
speculation, and property rights are explored for their role in
the coordination of economic activity. A Note on JSTOR articles:
Some of the readings are on JSTOR, an online journal archive.
If the link provided does not work, you can also find these
articles by clicking the JSTOR link that follows
the article title, logging in, and using the Advanced Search
link to find the article.
The book In Defense of Global
Capitalism by Johan Norberg can be found here.
The book Principles of
Economics by Carl Menger can be found here.
In addition to the resources
below, another fine online resource is Robert J.
Stonebraker's book The
Joy of Economics: Making Sense out of Life. Whether
you're having trouble understanding the material and need another
perspective, or you just want a fun and entertaining approach to
microeconomics, I recommend Dr. Stonebraker's book.
Lesson 1: A Brief History of
Economic Thought
Leonard E. Read, I,
Pencil (class handout)
(FB) Chapter 1
Lesson 2: The Law of Supply
and Demand
(JN) Chapter 1
(FB) Chapters 3
Carl Menger, Principles
of Economics, Chapters 1-4
Lesson 3: The Role of the
Price System
(JN) Chapter 2
Thomas Rustici, A
Public Choice View of the Minimum Wage (PDF)
Hugh Rockoff, Price
Controls
Walter Block, Rent
Control
Additional Optional Reading:
Donald Deere, Kevin M. Murphy, and Finis Welch, Sense and Nonsense on the Minimum Wage
Joint Economic Committee, 50
Years of Research on the Minimum Wage
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Characteristics
of Minimum Wage Workers
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Table
A-2 (class handout)
Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPS AA, Table
44 (PDF)
Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPS AA, Table
45 (PDF)
Leonard, Thomas C., Retrospectives:
Eugenics and Economics in the Progressive Era (PDF)
Lesson 4: International Trade
(JN) Chapter 3
(FB) Chapters 2 & 9
Frederic Bastiat, The
Candlemaker's Petition
Russell Roberts, Treasure Island: The Power of Trade (Part
I, Part
II)
David Ricardo, On
Foreign Trade
Lesson 5: The Economic Theory
of the Firm
Armen A. Alchian and Harold Demsetz, Production,
Information Costs, and Economic Organization (JSTOR)
Ronald Coase, The
Nature of the Firm (JSTOR)
Lesson 6: Competition and
Monopoly
(FB) Chapters 6 & 10
Thomas DiLorenzo, Competition Except Where Prohibited By Law
(class handout)
Fred S. McChesney, Antitrust
Lesson 7: Income Determination
(FB) Chapter 8
(JN) Chapter 4
S. David Young, Occupational
Licensing
Morgan O. Reynolds, Labor
Unions
W. Michael Cox and Richard Alm, By
Our Own Bootstraps (PDF)
W. Michael Cox and Richard Alm, You
Are What You Spend
Re-Thinking Inequality Trends (class handout)
Lesson 8: The Economics of
Information
(FB) Chapter 13
George Bittlingmayer, Advertising
Daniel B. Klein and Alexander Tabarrok, Theory,
Evidence, and Examples of FDA Harm
Class Handouts from The Economist magazine
Lesson 9: Economics and the
Environment
(FB) Chapter 12
(JN) Chapter 5
Richard L. Stroup, Environmentalism,
Free Market
Biography of Ronald H. Coase
Armen A. Alchian, Property
Rights
Lesson 10: Public Goods and
Public Choice
(JN) Chapter 6
Jane S. Shaw, Public
Choice Theory
Tyler Cowen, Public
Goods and Externalities
The
Declaration of Independence
The
Constitution of the United States of America
Federalist
No. 10
Federalist
No. 51
Golden
Fleece Awards
Lesson 11: Final Lecture
(JN) Chapter 7
Frederic Bastiat, What
Is Seen and What Is Not Seen
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