Peer Review

14.03 Microeconomic Theory and Public Policy | Economics

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: Feb 1, 2017 by Business

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Ratings

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Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

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Overview:: This class presents microeconomic theory and applications of consumer and producer behavior and welfare analysis at an intermediate level. In addition to standard competitive models, we study deviations due to externalities, asymmetric information, and imperfect rationality. We apply this material to policy debates including minimum wage regulations, food stamp provision, trade protection, educational credentials, health insurance markets, and real estate markets.
Type of Material:: Online Course. This material represents an entire course with syllabus, lecture notes, assignments and exams.
Recommended Uses:: • This can help the instructor to get ideas about instructional approach, use some or all of the teaching materials (course content questions, lecture notes, etc.) as an introductory or summary note when introducing and/or completing the concepts in class. • This is useful to the students as a supplementary resource prior to the commencement of classes to get a feel for the content on Microeconomic Theory and Public Policy applications and/or as cliff notes when reviewing the key concepts of Microeconomic Theory and Public Policy.
Technical Requirements:: MIT OpenCourseWare has tested the site with the following browsers: Chrome 20+ Firefox 13+ (all platforms) Internet Explorer 8.0+ (Windows) Safari 5.1+ (Mac OSX) + Adobe Reader for pdf download.
Identify Major Learning Goals:: • The student will be able to solidify his/her understanding of Microeconomic Theory concepts application to Public Policy areas. • Potential future students will be able to get a feel for the subject prior to registering for this economic class. • The student will understand Economic theory: What does it say? What is it good for? • The student will understand Causality: What is it? How it is measured or estimated. • The student will understand the concept of empirical testing.
Target Student Population:: • Advanced Microeconomic Theory for economics majors • Non-economics or Non-business, or Public Policy students taking an Intermediate Microeconomic Theory course as a minor.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: The student must have beginner and intermediate microeconomic subject matter knowledge. The student must have knowledge of advanced calculus.

Content Quality

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Strengths:: - The material is complete. There are lectures, assignments, reading resources that correlate to each microeconomic topic. - It is consistently laid out with a course home page, syllabus, readings, lecture notes, assignments, exams and download course materials sections on the left column of the page. - Most content is provided on the webpage or via pdf links.
Concerns:: - The material does not provide any solutions so students can test their knowledge of the concepts. - The material is very theoretical - with very few real life examples and solutions. - Perhaps, there could be more types of content like online videos or audio clips that could meet the learning styles of visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

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Strengths:: - Instructors can get a quick overview of the different instructional delivery and have access to a new set of teaching materials. - Potential students thinking of taking a similar course could use this site to check out the content, time-intensiveness and layout of the chapters before enrolling in an actual course. - The instructor could provide the link to this site as supplementary reading prior to the commencement of classes so that students can get a feel for the content on Microeconomic Theory and Public Policy or before starting on a new chapter or the course. - It also provides supplementary readings including journal articles and selections from other related economic books that are more up-to-date and include the impact of the recent Great Recession on public policy issues - There are some excellent topics that are presented with the microeconomic theory such as minimum wage discussion, consumer choice, etc.
Concerns:: - The material itself doesn't allow for concept reinforcement or learning effectiveness. - Because there are few solutions or real number examples to support the theory, the learning effectiveness for students is limited. - The main textbook used is dated 2006 that needs to be updated to the latest edition.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

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Strengths:: - The OCW is free and made available as a pdf download or web reading. - There are a number of graphs to support the material.
Concerns:: - It is neither engaging nor interactive which could make it difficult for students to retain the concepts learned. - There also no contact information or an online discussion forum that could facilitate an area for clarification or comments. - The assignments and exams only have question sets with no solutions that makes it harder for self-learners to know if they are attempting the mathematical questions correctly. - The material would be strengthened for users with disabilities by including visual or audio to accompany lectures/topics.

Other Issues and Comments:: As mentioned in several areas of the review, the material could be strengthened by including more real number examples and solutions so students could more easily apply the theory.
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