ECON 10A: Introduction to Microeconomics is intended for all possible economics majors, minors, and for all other students who plan to take Econ 20 (Introduction to Macroeconomics) later in their academic career. This is the first economics course that economics students should take at Brandeis, and anyone contemplating a major or minor should start with this course.
The course will give you an idea of the range of behaviors that economists investigate, introduce you to the basic tools that we use to analyze economic behavior, and apply these tools to public policy issues. Perhaps most important, this course will introduce you to the “economic way of thinking,” an approach to decision making that applies to personal decisions, to the decisions of businesses, labor unions and other organizations, and to the larger choices that society faces.
This course satisfies the School of Social Science (SS) distribution requirement and the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the General University Requirements. It is also the first course for any student considering a concentration or minor in Economics.
This course has two “broad” goals. First, it is hoped that everyone will come out of this course a more educated citizen, being able to use basic economic principles to critically evaluate the arguments for and against public policy proposals (various tax proposals, immigration reform). Second, this course should give students the theoretical tools necessary for success in subsequent economics courses.
