Program Overview

AP Microeconomics Program

The AP Microeconomics program is an introduction to basic microeconomic principles. This course covers how individuals make decisions ranging from what type of goods to buy to how many hours to work, and how firms make decisions ranging from how many workers to hire to what prices to charge. Students will study how to evaluate economic outcomes from the perspective of efficiency and fairness, and discuss the proper role of the government in determining these outcomes.

Program Overview

This economics course is designed to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of microeconomic principles. The course will cover all material required for the Microeconomics AP exam, using a mix of intuitive explanations, real-world applications, and graphical and mathematical supplements to explore the content in more depth.

What You'll Learn

• Consumer theory: How do consumers make decisions to maximize happiness?
• Producer theory: How do firms make decisions to maximize profit?
• Market structures: How does the structure of a market affect economic efficiency?
• Market failures: How do markets fail and what is the role of government to respond to these failures?
• Economic fairness: How do we strike the balance between economic efficiency and fairness?

Course Units

• Unit 1. Basic Economic Concepts: Opportunity Cost, Consumer Preferences, Budget Constraints, Utility Maximization
• Unit 2. Supply and Demand: Shifts of Supply and Demand, Elasticity, Income and Substitution Effects, Consumer and Producer Surplus, Taxes, International Trade
• Unit 3. Production, Cost, and the Perfect Competition Model: Short-Run and Long-Run Production, Short-Run and Long-Run Supply, Profit Maximization, Perfect Competition
• Unit 4. Imperfect Competition: Monopoly, Oligopoly, Game Theory, Ologopolistic and Monopolistic Competition
• Unit 5. Factor Markets: Labor Supply and Demand, Monopsony, Capital Markets
• Unit 6. Market Failures and the Role of Government: Efficiency-Equity Tradeoff, Externalities, Redistribution, Public Goods

Prerequisites

None

Instructors

• Jonathan Gruber: Ford Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Program Details

• Start: Anytime
• End: August 25, 2026
• Course Format: Self-paced
• Estimated: 12 Weeks, 4 Hours/Week
• Price: Free to Learn, Certificate Track: $69.00

Instructor Biography

Dr. Jonathan Gruber is the Ford Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he has taught since 1992. He is also the Director of the Health Care Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research and President of the American Society of Health Economists. He has published more than 150 research articles and is the author of Public Finance and Public Policy, a leading undergraduate text, and Health Care Reform, a graphic novel. In 2006, he received the American Society of Health Economists Inaugural Medal for the best health economist in the nation aged 40 and under.