5 credits
The principles of microeconomics explain how in a market economy the price system answers the following fundamental economic questions: What goods and services are produced and distributed as well as how and for whom? Students in this course examine the behaviors of households that supply factors of production—natural resources, labor, and capital—to firms and that purchase consumer goods and services from firms. They also investigate firms that maximize profit through their decisions about acquiring factors of production, controlling costs of production, choosing the optimal level of output, competing with other firms under different market structures, and making investment decisions about entering new markets.