University of Western Ontario (UWO ) • Business

These lecture notes from Chapter 9 of Microeconomics: Canada in the Global Environment (11th Edition) explore how consumers make optimal choices given their income, preferences, and prices. The budget line illustrates consumption possibilities, while indifference curves map consumer preferences. The concept of diminishing marginal rate of substitution explains why indifference curves are convex. The notes detail how consumers reach utility-maximizing choices where the budget line is tangent to a...

These lecture notes from Chapter 8 of *Microeconomics: Canada in the Global Environment (11th Edition)* explore how consumers make choices using the concept of utility. The notes explain total and marginal utility, the law of diminishing marginal utility, and how consumers maximize satisfaction within budget constraints using the equi-marginal principle. The paradox of value—why water costs less than diamonds—is resolved by focusing on marginal rather than total utility. The lecture also int...

These lecture notes from Chapter 7 of *Microeconomics: Canada in the Global Environment (11th Edition)* explore the mechanics and impacts of international trade. The notes explain how trade allows countries to specialize based on comparative advantage, increasing overall efficiency and consumer choice. They analyze the gains from trade and identify both winners and losers in domestic markets. Key trade barriers such as tariffs, quotas, and non-tariff regulations are examined for their economic e...

These lecture notes from Chapter 6 of Microeconomics: Canada in the Global Environment (11th Edition) explore the effects of government intervention in markets. Key policies analyzed include rent ceilings, minimum wage laws, taxes, production quotas, subsidies, and prohibitions on illegal goods. The notes explain how these interventions impact supply, demand, prices, and quantities, often creating unintended consequences like shortages, unemployment, or black markets. Graphs are described to hel...

These lecture notes from Chapter 5 of Microeconomics: Canada in the Global Environment (11th Edition) examine how scarce resources are allocated and the concepts of efficiency and equity. The notes explore various allocation methods—market price, command, lottery, and more—and explain how demand reflects marginal benefit and supply reflects marginal cost. Key terms like consumer surplus and producer surplus are defined with graph descriptions for clarity. The notes also address market effic...

These lecture notes from Chapter 4 of *Microeconomics: Canada in the Global Environment (11th Edition)* explore elasticity, a key concept in understanding how quantity demanded or supplied responds to changes in price, income, or related goods' prices. The notes define, calculate, and interpret price elasticity of demand, income elasticity, cross-price elasticity, and price elasticity of supply, using real-world examples for clarity. Factors influencing elasticity—such as time, necessity, a...

These lecture notes from Chapter 3 of *Microeconomics: Canada in the Global Environment (11th Edition)* explore how prices and quantities are determined in competitive markets using the demand and supply model. Key concepts include opportunity cost, the law of demand and supply, and the factors that shift each curve. The notes explain how market equilibrium is achieved and how surpluses and shortages influence price changes. Detailed graph descriptions help students visualize market dynamics. Re...

These lecture notes explore Chapter 2 of *Microeconomics: Canada in the Global Environment (11th Edition)*, focusing on the economic problem of scarcity and choice. Key concepts include the Production Possibilities Frontier (PPF), opportunity cost, and allocative efficiency, with graphs described to help students visualize trade-offs. The notes explain how specialization and trade allow economies to consume beyond their limits and how current production choices affect future growth and employmen...

These lecture notes provide a comprehensive introduction to economics, based on *Microeconomics: Canada in the Global Environment* (11th Edition). They explore the definition of economics and distinguish between microeconomics and macroeconomics, while addressing the two big economic questions: what to produce and how self-interest aligns with social interest. Key concepts such as opportunity cost, marginal analysis, and incentives are explained with real-world examples. The notes also highlight...

Business 2257