Economics is a required course within the Social Studies Dept. Students generally take Economics in 10th grade and will earn 1/2 credit for successful completion of the course.

You can't always get what you want. Why not? Economics is the study of limited resources and how to make efficient choices. Should government interfere with those choices? Why do countries trade? How does inflation and unemployment affect teenagers?

Through this course you will discover how to use economic reasoning to explore these concepts and answer these questions and more.

	Unit 1: Introduction	Unit 2: Economic Systems	Unit 3: Supply & Demand	Unit 4: How Markets Work
	Unit 5: Economic Performance	Unit 6: Monetary & Fiscal Policies	Unit 7: International Trade	Final Exam Review Materials

Unit 1: Intro to Economics

DE Economics Standard Addressed: This unit provides students with an overview of all four DE content standards. Each of the 4 economics standards will be addressed in the subsequent units.

Essential Questions:

1. Why do societies have an economy?
2. Why must choices be made?
3. How must choices be made?

Key Terms/Concepts:

• Scarcity
• Factors of Production (Land, Labor, Capital)
• Trade-Offs
• Shortage
• Resources
• Opportunity Cost
• Production Possibilities Curve

Unit 2: Economic Systems & Transitions

DE Economics Standard Addressed: Standard # Standard #3 - Students will analyze the wide range of opportunities and consequences resulting from the current transitions from command to market economies in many countries.

Essential Questions:

1. How have economic systems changed how different states answer the three basic questions?
2. What are socieites trying to achieve with their economic goals?
3. What trade-offs are made in goals when moving from a command to market system?
4. What are the consequences (positive and negative) when a state transitions from a command to a market system?

Key Terms/Concepts:

• Traditional System
• Free (Open) Market System
• Command System
• Mixed (Modern) System
• Communism

Unit 3: Price as Determined by Supply & Demand

DE Economics Standard Addressed: Standard #1 - Students will demonstrate how individual economic choices are made within the context of a market economy in which markets influence the production and distribution of goods and services.

Essential Questions:

1. How does price influence consumer demand?
2. Is demand for all goods and services the same?
3. What causes demand to change?
4. How does the market price influence producer's supply?
5. What causes supply to change?
6. What happens when the government interferes in the open market?

Key Terms/Concepts:

• Demand
• Supply
• Equilibrium
• Shifts (IRDL)
• Marginal Revenue
• Marginal Cost
• Elasticity

Unit 4: How Markets Work

DE Economics Standard Addressed: Standard #1 - Students will demonstrate how individual economic choices are made within the context of a market economy in which markets influence the production and distribution of goods and services.

Essential Questions:

1. How do factor markets and product markets oerate in a market economy?
2. How do factor markets and product markets oerate in a mixed economy?
3. What influences do financial instituions have on a market economy?

Unit 5: Economic Performance

DE Economics Standard Addressed: Standard #2 - Students will develop an understanding of how economics function as a whole, including the causes and effects of inflation, unemployment, business cycles, and monetary and fiscal policies.

Essential Questions:

1. What are the causes and effects of inflation?
2. What are the causes and effects of unemployment?
3. What influences business cycles?

Key Terms/Concepts:

• Expansion
• Recession
• Trough
• Peak
• Depression
• Circular Flow
• Business Cycle

Unit 6: Monetary & Fiscal Policies

DE Economics Standard Addressed: Standard #2 - Students will develop an understanding of how economics function as a whole, including the causes and effects of inflation, unemployment, business cycles, and monetary and fiscal policies.

Essential Questions:

1. Why/When do governments tax and spend?
2. What does the Federal Reserve Bank do?
3. How does monetary policy work?
4. What are the strengths and weaknesses of monetary and fiscal policies?
5. How does Classical Economic Theory differ from Keynesian Economic Theory?

Key Terms/Concepts:

• J. M. Keynes
• A. Smith
• Fiscal Policy
• Monetary Policy
• FDR
• New Deal
• Expansionary Fiscal Policy
• Contractionary Fiscal Policy
• Easy Money Policy
• Tight Money Policy
  

Unit 7: International Trade

DE Economics Standard Addressed: Standard #4 - Students will analyze and interpret the influence of the distribution of the world's resources, political stability, national efforts to encourage or discourage trade, and the flow of investment on patterns of international trade.

Essential Questions:

1. Why do countries trade?
2. How does resource distibution affect trade?
3. What are the differences between absolute and comparative advantage?
4. How do nations encourage or discourage trade?
5. Why do domestic businesses invest and produce in foreign lands?
6. How do political factors impact international trade?

Key Terms/Concepts:

• Absolute advantage
• Comparative advantage
• Specialization
• Opportunity cost
• Tariff
• Embargo
• Quota
• Subsidy
• Trade Standards
• Trade Deficit

Suggested Lessons:

• Understanding the WTO
• Theory of Comparative Advantage

Final Exam Review Materials

Review materials for Economics will be added soon. In the meantime, please check with your teacher.

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