ECN 302 - Macroeconomics (3 credits)
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Topic outline
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Principles of Macroeconomics (3 credits)
Instructor: Michael Greene
Enroll me Overview: This course introduces economic analysis of individual, business, and industry choices in the market economy. Topics include the price mechanism, supply and demand, optimizing economic behavior, costs and revenue, market structures, factor markets, income distribution, market failure, and government intervention. Upon completion, students should be able to identify and evaluate consumer and business alternatives in order to achieve economic objectives efficiently.
Course Outcomes:
- Understand that economics is about the allocation of scarce resources, that scarcity forces choice, trade-offs exist, and that every choice has an opportunity cost. Demonstrate these concepts using a production possibility frontier diagram.
- Understand how comparative advantage provides the basis for gains through trade.
- List the determinants of the demand and supply for a good in a competitive market and explain how that demand and supply together determine equilibrium price.
- Understand the role of prices in allocating scarce resources in market economies and explain the consequences of price controls.
- Define an externality and a public good and explain why the presence of externalities and public goods make markets inefficient. Analyze various government policies aimed at solving these inefficiencies.
- Understand the costs of production and how profit-maximizing firms determine how much to produce. Be able to distinguish between long-run decisions and short-run decisions.
- Distinguish between perfect competition and imperfect competition and be able to explain the welfare loss in non-competitive markets.
Introduction: Many students of the Bible have observed that God often refers to economic topics and concepts. For example, money, interest rates (usury), profit and loss, wages, entrepreneurship, and contractual obligations are used by Christ to make spiritual points in the parables of the pounds (Luke 19:12-26), of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30), and of the workers in the vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16). Other scriptures deal with economic problems most 20th century individuals are still confronting: inflation and the debasement of money (Haggai 1:6; Isaiah l:22), creditor-debtor difficulties (Proverbs 22:7; Psalms 37:21), unemployment (Matthew 20:3), and even big government with its high taxes (I Samuel 8:11-18).
Nevertheless, it seems clear that the Bible per se is not an economics textbook. God has not systematically expounded economic principles as one might expect to find in a modern-day text on economic principles.
That leaves Christians with an intriguing dilemma. If we do not have our own unique understanding of economic principles - Biblical economics - does this mean we must relief on secular sources for economic knowledge? If so, which of the many competing traditions should we embrace?
Thankfully, the answer is that there is a Christian perspective on economic matters. There is a science of Biblical economics, albeit an almost untouched field of study for academic economists today. It is not, however, a patchwork of Christian ethics combined with a preferred economic theory or applied to specific economic problems, as some have perceived it. Instead, it is a comprehensive, unified body of moral and economic principles that are inexorably interrelated. It is a body of knowledge without which humanity will never achieve its economic potential.
Resources: This course includes resources from many books and articles. All required material is included in the online course. No book purchases are needed.
Assignments: View all online lectures and read all articles on each topic. CLI computer tracks whether you do this. After viewing all lectures for the week, take the quiz based on the lectures (100% of grade).Grading Scale:
A 95-100% A- 90-94% B+ 87-89% B 83-86% B- 80-82% C+ 77-79% C 73-76% C- 70-72% D+ 67-69% D 63-66% D- 60-62% F 0-59%Your average grade for all assignments in the class must be at least 60%. Otherwise, you will fail the class and will receive no course credit.
Deadline: You have 180 days to finish the course. Complete all assignments before the final deadline, or you will be automatically withdrawn from the course and all coursework will be removed. You will have to start over and retake the class to receive credit. Please take this course very seriously. It is a gift to you by very generous contributors and the staff and professors of Christian Leaders Institute.
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The course has ended. Please make sure all quizzes have been completed. If your work is incomplete, it is considered a drop, and you will have to take the class again in order to receive credit.
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