ECON 103 Principles of Microeconomics.
Each tool teaches the idea step by step. Switch to Solve at the top of any tool for exam-style questions, worked with you.
Supply and demand
Supply, demand and market equilibrium
The law of demand and the law of supply, what shifts each curve, movements along a curve versus shifts, equilibrium price and quantity, and how surpluses and shortages push the price. Solve: exam questions worked step by step.
Open the toolElasticity and total revenue
Price elasticity of demand with the midpoint method, elastic versus inelastic demand, the total revenue test, elasticity along a straight demand curve, and income, cross-price and supply elasticities. Solve: exam questions worked step by step.
Open the toolMarkets and welfare
Consumer surplus, producer surplus and efficiency
Willingness to pay, consumer surplus and producer surplus as areas, total surplus, why the market equilibrium is efficient, and the deadweight loss from trading too little or too much. Solve: exam questions worked step by step.
Open the toolPrice ceilings and price floors
Binding and non-binding price ceilings and floors, the shortage or surplus each creates, the quantity actually traded, who gains and who loses, and the deadweight loss. Rent control and the minimum wage as examples. Solve: exam questions worked step by step.
Open the toolTaxes, tax incidence and deadweight loss
How a per-unit tax drives a wedge between the price buyers pay and the price sellers receive, who really bears the tax, tax revenue, and the deadweight loss as the tax grows. Solve: exam questions worked step by step.
Open the toolMarket failure
Externalities and corrective taxes
Negative and positive externalities, social cost and social value, the market quantity versus the efficient quantity, the deadweight loss, corrective taxes and subsidies, tradable permits and the Coase theorem. Solve: exam questions worked step by step.
Open the toolPublic goods and common resources
Excludable and rival goods, the four types of goods, the free-rider problem, the efficient amount of a public good from summed marginal benefits, cost-benefit analysis and the tragedy of the commons. Solve: exam questions worked step by step.
Open the toolFirms and market structure
The costs of production
Explicit and implicit costs, economic versus accounting profit, marginal product, fixed and variable cost, average and marginal cost curves, why marginal cost crosses average total cost at its minimum, and economies of scale. Solve: exam questions worked step by step.
Open the toolCompetitive firms: price takers and profit
Price-taking firms, the price equals marginal cost rule, profit and loss as a rectangle, the shut-down and exit rules, the firm and market supply curves, and the zero-profit long-run equilibrium with entry and exit. Solve: exam questions worked step by step.
Open the toolMonopoly: marginal revenue, price and deadweight loss
Why monopolies exist, why marginal revenue is below price, the profit-maximizing quantity and price, monopoly profit, the deadweight loss compared with the efficient quantity, and price discrimination. Solve: exam questions worked step by step.
Open the toolLabour and capital
Labour markets and the value of the marginal product
Labour demand as a derived demand, the marginal product of labour and its value, hiring until that value equals the wage, the equilibrium wage, minimum wages and unions, and why wages differ. Solve: exam questions worked step by step.
Open the toolInterest and present value
Why a dollar today is worth more than a dollar later, future value and present value, discounting a stream of payments, the net present value rule for investments, and how the interest rate moves asset prices. Solve: exam questions worked step by step.
Open the toolExam coming up in ECON 103?
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