Microeconomics: Price and Trade

Course description

This free online microeconomics course will teach you about price and trade. You will learn about the price system, which helps to co-ordinate global economic activity and acts as a signal for shortages and surpluses, helping firms and consumers respond to changing market conditions. You will also study how trade increases competition, lowers world prices and breaks down domestic monopolies.

This course is very helpful not just for business entrepreneurs who are in the trade industry but also to those who want to understand how microeconomic conditions affect everyday life. It is the second in a series of four courses on microeconomics and if you have finished studying ‘Microeconomics: Supply, Demand and Equilibrium’, now is a good time to take this course.

The material will first introduce you to the price system. You will learn that a price is a signal that conveys information and you will discover how markets are linked all over the world. The course will teach you that markets collapse huge amounts of relevant information into a single number called the ‘market price’. You will look into the prediction market and learn that prices in futures markets can provide signals for future events.

Next, you will look into price ceilings and price floors. You will learn that when the quantity of goods demanded exceeds the quantity supplied, a shortage will result. You will look into the three benefits of trade and study about tariff and international trade, and see how imports are paid for with exports and that economic growth reduces child labour.