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Economics

Micro & macro fundamentals — supply/demand, elasticity, GDP, policy.

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Micro 103 Week 1: Spontaneous Order & The One Lesson14 cards — step 1 of 27

The four course books (what the codes in each deck mean)

Micro 103 — day-by-day study planHow to use the decks, an exam-by-exam sprint, and the full push to the comprehensive Final.Sections 8-11 — Reading GuideThe primary-source essays (information & middlemen, income, environment, public choice) — what each argues, with free links where they exist.

Flashcard decks

27 decks · 359 cards · in study order
1Micro 103 Week 1: Spontaneous Order & The One LessonGMU Microeconomics 103 (Rustici), Exam 1. Scarcity, choice, opportunity cost, the economic way of thinking, Hazlitt's one lesson, the seen and the unseen, spontaneous order and I Pencil. Readings: Gwartney & Stroup ch. 1-2, Hazlitt ch. 1-3, Rustici's anthology sec. 1.142Micro 103 Week 2: History of Economic ThoughtGMU Microeconomics 103 (Rustici), Exam 1. Aristotle through the classical school: mercantilism, Adam Smith and division of labor, Ricardo, the classical labor theory of value, plus Menger on goods and economizing and the Rustici's anthology sec. ethics essays. Readings: Menger ch. 1-2, Rustici's anthology sec. 2.133Micro 103 Week 3: The Marginal Revolution (Subjective Value)GMU Microeconomics 103 (Rustici), Exam 1. Marginalism and subjectivism: the 1871 marginal revolution, subjective value, marginal utility and diminishing MU, thinking at the margin, and Hazlitt on machinery, make-work, and full employment. Readings: Gwartney & Stroup ch. 3, Menger ch. 3-4, Hazlitt ch. 8-10.124Micro 103 Week 4: Supply & DemandGMU Microeconomics 103 (Rustici), Exam 1. The law of supply and demand: demand and supply laws, movements vs shifts, what shifts each curve, substitutes and complements, equilibrium, surplus and shortage, Menger on price and use vs exchange value, and the functions of prices. Readings: Gwartney & Stroup ch. 4, Menger ch. 5-6, Rustici's anthology sec. 3.135Micro 103 Week 4B: Elasticity of Demand & SupplyGMU Microeconomics 103 (Rustici), Exam 1 / Final. Elasticity: price elasticity of demand (elastic vs inelastic, determinants, the total-revenue test, straight-line curve), price elasticity of supply, cross-price and income elasticity, normal vs inferior goods, and tax incidence. Pairs with the Week 4 Supply & Demand deck.146Micro 103 Week 5: The Role of the Price SystemGMU Microeconomics 103 (Rustici), Exam 1. How the price system coordinates the economy: price ceilings and floors, government price-fixing, rent control, the 1970s energy crisis, minimum wage, unions, Hayek's knowledge problem, and profit and loss. Readings: Gwartney & Stroup ch. 7, Hazlitt ch. 15-19, Rustici's anthology sec. 4.137Micro 103 Week 6: Opportunity Cost & Comparative AdvantageGMU Microeconomics 103 (Rustici), Exam 2. Opportunity cost applied: the production possibilities frontier and increasing costs, absolute vs comparative advantage, the law of comparative advantage and gains from trade, and Bastiat on protectionism and the balance of trade. Readings: Gwartney & Stroup ch. 8, Rustici's anthology sec. 5.128Micro 103 Week 7: International Trade & the Global EconomyGMU Microeconomics 103 (Rustici), Exam 2. Trade and the global economy: tariffs and quotas, the drive-for-exports fallacy, trade deficits, parity prices, 'saving' industries, the free-trade case, exchange rates and foreign investment, and why protectionism persists. Readings: Gwartney & Stroup ch. 16, Hazlitt ch. 11-14.129Micro 103 Week 8: Production & the Theory of the FirmGMU Microeconomics 103 (Rustici), Exam 2. The firm: why firms exist (Coase and transaction costs), Friedman on business responsibility, Alchian & Demsetz on team production, the principal-agent problem, product curves and diminishing returns, forms of business organization, and the firm-vs-market boundary. Readings: Gwartney & Stroup ch. 9, Rustici's anthology sec. 6.1310Micro 103 Week 9: Cost Curves & Perfect CompetitionGMU Microeconomics 103 (Rustici), Exam 3. Costs and the competitive firm: explicit vs implicit costs, accounting vs economic profit, fixed/variable and marginal/average costs, diminishing returns, economies of scale, perfect competition, MR=MC, the shutdown rule, and long-run zero-profit equilibrium. Readings: Gwartney & Stroup ch. 10, Rustici's anthology sec. 7.1311Micro 103 Week 10: Monopoly & AntitrustGMU Microeconomics 103 (Rustici), Exam 3. Monopoly theory and antitrust: barriers to entry, why MR<price, monopoly price/output and deadweight loss, natural monopoly, price discrimination, antitrust law and the free-market critique, occupational licensure, contestable markets, and creative destruction. Readings: Gwartney & Stroup ch. 11.1212Micro 103 Week 11: The Economics of InformationGMU Microeconomics 103 (Rustici), Exam 3. Information as a scarce good: search costs, middlemen, speculators, advertising, brands and reputation, asymmetric information and 'lemons,' adverse selection, moral hazard, rational ignorance, and the FDA drug-lag critique. Readings: Gwartney & Stroup ch. 12, Rustici's anthology sec. 8.1213Micro 103 Week 12: The Theory of Income DeterminationGMU Microeconomics 103 (Rustici), Exam 3. How incomes are determined: derived demand and marginal revenue product, wages and human capital, wage differences and economic rent, interest and time preference, profit/loss and entrepreneurship, plus Hazlitt on 'buy back the product,' inflation, and unions. Readings: Gwartney & Stroup ch. 13-15 & Special Topics 2-8, Hazlitt ch. 20-22, Rustici's anthology sec. 9.1314Micro 103 Week 13: Economics & the EnvironmentGMU Microeconomics 103 (Rustici), comprehensive Final. Environmental economics: externalities, the tragedy of the commons, property rights and free-market environmentalism, the Coase theorem, command-and-control vs market approaches, Bootleggers and Baptists, and the ESA critique. Readings: Gwartney & Stroup Special Topics 9-10, Rustici's anthology sec. 10.1215Micro 103 Week 14: Public Choice - The Economics of PoliticsGMU Microeconomics 103 (Rustici), comprehensive Final. Public choice: government failure, concentrated benefits and dispersed costs, rational ignorance, rent-seeking, the median voter theorem, logrolling, public goods, the Federalist essays, and the Markets and Liberty capstone (Rand, economic freedom). Readings: Gwartney & Stroup ch. 5-6 & Special Topics 1 & 3, Rustici's anthology sec. s 11-13.1416Micro 103 — Section 1 Readings: Introduction & Spontaneous OrderThe specific Section 1 essays by author: Leonard Read's 'I, Pencil,' Daniel Klein's 'Rinkonomics,' and Thomas Rustici's 'Introduction' and 'Order from Chaos.' Establishes spontaneous order and the invisible hand as the book's lens — how coordinated order emerges from millions of uncoordinated self-interested choices.1317Micro 103 — Section 2 Readings: History of IdeasThe Section 2 essays by author: Walter Williams on greed versus compassion, Peter Boettke on the market as social cooperation, and Jack Hirshleifer on 'tough' versus 'soft' capitalist ethics. Anchors the moral-foundations debate — whether self-interest can serve others, and whether we judge economic acts by intentions or consequences.1118Micro 103 — Section 3 Readings: Price FormationThe Section 3 essays by author: Hans Sennholz on how prices form and function, R.A. Radford on the market that arose in a P.O.W. camp, and F.A. Hayek's 'The Use of Knowledge in Society.' Anchors subjective value, the marginalist revolution, and the price system as a communication mechanism for dispersed knowledge.1319Micro 103 — Section 4 Readings: Price ControlThe specific Section 4 essays by author: Hugh Rockoff on price controls in general, Walter Block on rent control, and Maurice & Smithson on the 1970s energy crisis (from The Doomsday Myth). Anchors the price-ceiling/price-floor concepts to the readings Rustici tests.1420Micro 103 — Section 5 Readings: Opportunity Cost & Comparative AdvantageThe specific Section 5 essays by author: Frederic Bastiat's two trade sophisms ('A Petition'/the Candlemakers and 'The Balance of Trade') and David Ricardo's founding statement of comparative advantage ('On Foreign Trade'). Anchors the opportunity-cost and gains-from-trade concepts to the readings Rustici tests.1421Micro 103 — Section 6 Readings: The FirmThe specific Section 6 essays by author: Milton Friedman on the social responsibility of business, Ronald Coase on why firms exist (transaction costs), and Alchian & Demsetz on team production, shirking, and the residual claimant. Anchors the 'theory of the firm' concepts to the readings Rustici tests.1722Micro 103 — Section 7 Readings: Competition & MonopolyThe Section 7 essays by author: Greenspan and McChesney on antitrust, Folsom on Rockefeller and Standard Oil, DiLorenzo on antitrust as anticompetitive, and Friedman on occupational licensure. Anchors the competition/monopoly concepts — market vs government-granted monopoly, the robber-baron myth, and barriers to entry — to the readings Rustici tests.1523Micro 103 — Section 8 Readings: Information, Middlemen & SpeculatorsThe specific Section 8 essays by author: Percy Greaves on speculators, Frederic Bastiat on middlemen, Israel Kirzner on advertising, and the Klein/Tabarrok case on FDA harm. Anchors the Week 11 'economics of information' concepts to the readings Rustici tests.1424Micro 103 — Section 9 Readings: Income DeterminationThe Section 9 essays by author: Mises on profit & loss, Roback on the 59¢ wage-gap fallacy, Viscusi on job safety and compensating wage differentials, Sennholz on CEO pay, Norberg on entrepreneurs, and Weaver's Mainspring. Anchors Week 12 factor-market and income concepts to the readings.1425Micro 103 — Section 10 Readings: Environmental EconomicsThe Section 10 essays by author: R.J. Smith and Stroup on the commons and the Endangered Species Act, Anderson on enviro-capitalists, Lee on letting environmentalists bid, Yandle's 'Bootleggers and Baptists,' and Nelson on standards of evidence. Anchors Week 13 property-rights and externality concepts to the readings.1126Micro 103 — Section 11 Readings: Public Choice & GovernmentThe Section 11 readings by author: Madison's Federalist No. 10 (factions) and No. 51 (checks and balances), Davy Crockett's 'Not Yours to Give,' and Robert Nisbet's 'Cloaking the State's Dagger,' plus the public-choice view of regulation. Anchors Week 14 government/public-choice concepts to the readings.1127Micro 103: Exam-Style Practice (Rustici MCQ)GMU Microeconomics 103 (Rustici) -- practice questions modeled on the ACTUAL exam format: multiple choice with precise 'which is true / crucial distinction / does NOT relate' items and applied 'what happens' scenarios. Covers sunk vs opportunity cost, surplus, wages & productivity, Coase vs Alchian-Demsetz, diminishing utility vs returns, D=MR=AR=P, inferior goods, price floors/ceilings, minimum wage, comparative advantage, and more. Each answer explains why.20

Practice exams

4 sets
Exam 1The economic way of thinking & Hazlitt's one lesson, the history of thought & Menger's theory of goods, the marginal revolution (subjective value), supply/demand & elasticity, and the price system & price controls. Each attempt draws 40 at random from the pool. Answer choices are written in the real-exam style — five closely-worded options that differ by a single key idea.Exam 2Opportunity cost & comparative advantage (the PPF and gains from trade), international trade & protectionism, and production & the theory of the firm (Coase, Alchian & Demsetz, product curves). Each attempt draws 40 at random from the pool. Answer choices are written in the real-exam style — five closely-worded options that differ by a single key idea.Exam 3Cost curves & perfect competition, monopoly & antitrust, the economics of information, and income determination (factor markets). Each attempt draws 40 questions at random from the pool. Answer choices are written in the real-exam style — five closely-worded options that differ by a single key idea.Final ExamThe comprehensive final: everything from spontaneous order and the marginal revolution through supply & demand, price controls, trade, the firm, monopoly, information, factor markets, externalities, and public choice. Each attempt draws 40 at random. Answer choices are written in the real-exam style — five closely-worded options that differ by a single key idea.