PrintThis course will be conducted entirely online. There are no set class meeting times, but you will be required to complete weekly assignments. Registered students in this course will need to navigate between several environments. These include:
This site
The instructional materials in this site include lessons, plus the Orientation. Each lesson contains an introduction, reading assignments, links, assessments, etc.
Canvas
Canvas is the learning management system currently being used by Penn State University. In Canvas, registered students may consult course calendars; communicate with instructors, teaching assistants, and fellow students; submit assignments; receive feedback from the instructor and teaching assistant; take online quizzes and surveys; and check assignment scores and course grades. A link to Canvas appears on every page.
NOTE: Only students who are registered for this course will have access to the Canvas space for this course. Students who register for this Penn State course gain access to assignments and instructor feedback and earn academic credit. Information about this course and the Online Bachelor of Arts Degree in Energy & Sustainability Policy.
Topics of study
- Lesson 1—Thinking about economics
- What is economics and why study it?
- Individual rationality and the economic way of thinking
- Positive and normative questions; property rights
- Lesson 2—Markets: Demand
- Market structures; comparative advantage and trade
- Supply and demand; origin of the demand curve
- Elasticities and demand curve shapes
- Lesson 3—Markets: Supply
- Production functions
- Cost structures
- Short and long run; investment decisions
- Lesson 4—Market dynamics
- Wealth created by markets
- Demand curve movements: causes and effects
- Supply curve movements: causes and effects
- Lesson 5—Market power
- Perfectly competitive market
- Market power and monopoly
- Other forms of market power
- Lesson 6—Other market failures
- Barriers to entry
- Price discrimination
- Information market failure
- Lesson 7—Environmental economics
- Public goods and common pools
- Externalities
- Valuing environmental goods
- Lesson 8—Government failure
- Public choice theory
- Bureaucracies and power
- Rent-seeking and regulatory capture
- Lesson 9—Government intervention
- Approaches to addressing monopoly
- Price controls and their effects
- Trade controls and their effects
- Lesson 10—Topical issues: Climate change and carbon policy
- The economics of climate change
- Climate change controversies
- Reducing carbon emissions
- Lesson 11—Topical issues: Resource scarcity and energy security
- Resource scarcity
- Energy security and independence
- Replacing oil
- Lesson 12—Topical issues: Effects of the shale gas boom
- Shale gas production
- Gas and power market effects
- Trade effects