Microeconomic Analysis
Summary
A course where we learn how to 
Microeconomic models
flowchart LR
A(Preferences/Income) --> C(Demand);
C --> E(Market Equilibrium);
D(Supply) --> E
M(Expectations) -->C;
M --> D;
Z(Taxes/Subsidies) --> C;
Z --> D;
A --> D;
E --> Q(Quantity);
E --> R(Prices);Components
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Real World Events
A central aim in this class is to improve our ability to think critically about the world around us. We'll do so by developing models that focus on recent events, from policy initiatives like the Right to Counsel to broader labor trends like the influence of the pandemic on the supply of teachers.
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Optimization
In Economics, we model indviduals, firms, governments as "maximizers". That is, we assume that people can be understood as making decisions to maximize some objective function subject to constraints.
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Uncertainty
Most decisions are made with some level of uncertainty. Firms may be unsure of which competitor may enter the market next year; an employer might not know the type of individual they just hired; consumers are unsure whether a storm will hit their house. In order to capture this uncertainty, we need to make use of probabilty theory.
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Math on the Computer
While we'll introduce concepts sequentially in this class, we want to be able to incorporate each aspect into our model. The only way we can do this in a reasonable fashion is by writing our models on the computer. We'll do so by making use of python. No prior experience is assumed though!