Principles of Microeconomics

Assignment: Political Economy Days

Description:
This assignment will help you synthesize the material we are learning in this course with events occurring
outside our classroom (or our virtual space). Please attend or watch at least one of the Political Economy Days guest lectures. The schedule of events is included under Announcements on our Canvas page. Some of these lectures will be recorded; the information will be sent to you after the event concludes.

Instructions:
Answer the following questions for each Political Economy Days lecture you attended or viewed.

Responses for questions 2-7 should be at least several sentences.

1. Which Political Economy Days lecture(s) did you view? Please state the title of the talk and the name of the presenter.

2. In your own words, please provide a brief overview of this session’s topic.

3. After attending this session, how has it affected your understanding of the topic? Focus on if this session has challenged or reaffirmed your ideas. If this is the first time you’ve engaged in this subject, describe your reaction.

4. How does this session relate to the economic concepts we covered from our first exam this semester? Specifically, how did this session address any of the following: trade-offs, opportunity costs, marginal analysis, scientific method, demand, supply, or market equilibrium? (In some sessions the relationships may be obvious, in other sessions they may be more subtle – remember, economic principles are present in all aspects of everyday life!) In your response, be sure to properly define all economic concepts/terms you discuss in your answer. Please underline the economic term in your definition.

5. How does this session relate to the economic concepts we covered from our second exam this semester? Specifically, how did this session address any of the following: elasticity, consumer and producer surplus, externalities, costs? (In some sessions the relationships may be obvious, in other sessions they may be more subtle – remember, economic principles are present in all aspects of everyday life!) Be sure to properly define any economic concepts/terms you discuss in your answer as well.

6. How does this session relate to the economic concepts we covered from our third exam this semester? Specifically, how did this session address any of the following: competitive markets, monopolies, oligopolies, monopolistically competitive markets, labor, factors of production? (In some sessions the relationships may be obvious, in other sessions they may be more subtle – remember, economic principles are present in all aspects of everyday life!) In your response, be sure to properly define all economic concepts/terms you discuss in your answer. Please underline the economic term in your definition.

7. What additional questions do you have that were not addressed within the scope of the presentation (or the following Question and Answer session, if recorded)?