Type: Core Videos

In this video, you’ll learn about the power of markets and explore equity and efficiency considerations. Professor Min Sok Lee explores what would happen if we were all dropped on a deserted island. How are we all going to get food? Water? How should we allocate our time? Markets might just be the solution. Professor…

How does your decision to drive to school affect others? Should the person smoking next to you consider the lung damage they are imposing on you? In this lesson, Professor John A. List explains what economists mean when they talk about externalities, and you might just change the way you think about your decisions.

This lesson covers the key concepts supply and demand, without the math. What happens to the price toilet paper when the whole world shuts down? How do rideshare companies respond when significantly more people are demanding rides after work? How do farmers respond to increasing costs of water? In this lesson Professor Min Sok Lee…

In this lesson Professor John A. List introduces game theory. How can learning game theory help you when you are negotiating with your sibling? Is game theory relevant to soccer players? Here, Professor List answers these questions and introduces a common game, the Prisoners’ Dilemma.

In this lesson, Professor John A. List introduces how economists think about discrimination. Why do teenage boys pay more for car insurance than teenage girls? Why do people discriminate? Can economic experiments teach us something about how to combat discrimination? Professor John A. List answers those questions and more.

The Law of Demand tells you that when goods and services are more expensive, people want less (all else equal), but there is more to that story. When the price of your weekly treat, a cupcake, doubles you may just stop buying it, or buy something else. However, if the price of a someone’s necessary…

When you purchase something and you pay less than you expected, you feel great! Economists want to capture that feeling, and that’s what consumer surplus does! How do economists use consumer surplus? Well, when economists compare costs and benefits of say an environmental policy, loss of consumer surplus is an important component to that calculation….

Trade appears just about everywhere in our lives. You may be thinking of international trade, which is, of course, important. But, did you give yourself a haircut? Make your own shoes? Trade is everywhere! What about when you are assigned a partner on a project, how do you decide to allocate your and your partner’s…

As you, firms big and small, and governments are making your decisions, you all have something in common — none of you are making decisions in isolation.  Economists believe everyone is trying to optimize. While you are making your decision optimizing, so is everyone else. Because we exist in a world where everyone is simultaneously…

Economists believe in optimization, but what does this mean for everyday decision making? How do you make decisions such as how long to study for, whether to spend an extra 30 minutes watching TV, is college worth it, and the list goes on and on. Well, since economics is all about choices, thinking like an…