Why are markets commonly believed to be the best way of allocating resources and organizing economic activity? This course will answer this critical question while examining its implications for pricing, market entry and exit, short-term and long-term business strategies, and the forecasting of key market variables. The course introduces fundamental topics in the economic analysis of markets, and some of the analytical tools used to study them, as a means to build an economic intuition and fostering an understanding of a variety of market conditions and market forces.

After taking this course, you will be able to: - Explain the basics of supply and demand curves. - Characterize variable and fixed costs. - Identify short-run and long-run market exit prices. - Construct short-run and long-run supply curves. - Construct demand curves. - Identify short-run and long-run equilibria in competitive markets. - Predict short-run and long-run market prices. - Interpret a market price path. - Explain firm entry, exit, and profitability in competitive markets. Software requirements: None