AP Microeconomics



Pebblebrook High School

Social Studies Department

Course Title: AP Economics Instructor: Mr. Phinizy

Email: Marvin.Phinizy@ Phone: 770-819-2521

School Website:

Blog Address:

The course content is designed to help students develop critical-thinking skills through the understanding, application, and analysis of fundamental economic concepts, such as scarcity, opportunity cost and choice. Students will be expected to apply quantitative and mathematical skills including creating and manipulating graphs to interpreting economic concepts. Also, they will be expected to apply economic logic to a wide variety of real-world and hypothetical situations. The course is very similar to the Economics course offered at the college level. This course prepares students for the AP® Economics Examination. The AP MicroEconomics and AP MacroEconomics Exams consists of 60 multiple-choice questions and 3 free-response questions.

Required Reading:

Textbook:

McConnell, Campbell R., and Stanley L. Brue.

Economics: Principles, Problems, and Policies. 17th Ed.

New York: Irwin/McGraw- Hill, 2008.

Attendance:

Regular attendance and punctuality are essential to learning the material of this course. Thirty percent of your grade is derived from in-class assignments and homework assignments turned in on time. The material is analytical and cumulative so attendance is imperative.

Quizzes / In-class and Homework Assignments:

These assignments are 30 percent of your grade in this class. If you miss any one of these assignments, your grade (on this percentage of your grade) will drop. Quizzes will carry a maximum value of 20 points and in-class / homework assignments a value of 10 points (unless otherwise specified).

Exams:

You will have four exams in this class, plus a final exam. ALL OF THESE EXAMS ARE REQUIRED EXAMS. The knowledge you gain in this class is cumulative, so anything that is taught from the beginning of the class to the date of the exam is fair game. The final exam is cumulative. The four exams consist of both multiple choice and essay/free response questions. The multiple choice portion of the exam will be 67% of the exam grade and the essay portion will be 33% of the exam grade. Please remember these four exams are worth 50 percent of your grade in this class.

Course Evaluation:

Exams 50%

Quizzes / In-class and Outside Assignments 30%

End-of-course-Test 15% / 20%

Final Exam 5%

There will be NO LATE WORK ACCEPTED

Graphing:

From the first chapter to the last chapter in AP Economics, the drawing of correctly labeled graphs are a MUST. Anything less than a correctly labeled graph will be unacceptable. You will be drawing graphs with the following topics: production-possibilities curve, marginal benefits/marginal costs, supply/demand, money market graph, loanable funds market graph, aggregate supply/aggregate demand graphs, exchange market graphs, Phillips’ curve graph, and many more.

Course Outline

We will be following the course outline described in The College Board’s Economics Course Description Guide found at the following site:

The outline for AP Economics is found on pages 22 - 27 and reads as follows:

Percentage Goals of Exam

Content Area (multiple-choice section)

I. Basic Economic Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (8–12%)

A. Scarcity, choice, and opportunity costs

B. Production possibilities curve

C. Comparative advantage, absolute advantage, specialization, and exchange

D. Demand, supply, and market equilibrium

E. Macroeconomic issues: business cycle, unemployment, inflation, growth

II. Measurement of Economic Performance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (12–16%)

A. National income accounts

1. Circular flow

2. Gross domestic product

3. Components of gross domestic product

4. Real versus nominal gross domestic product

B. Inflation measurement and adjustment

1. Price indices

2. Nominal and real values

3. Costs of inflation

C. Unemployment

1. Definition and measurement

2. Types of unemployment

3. Natural rate of unemployment

III. National Income and Price Determination. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (10–15%)

A. Aggregate demand

1. Determinants of aggregate demand

2. Multiplier and crowding-out effects

B. Aggregate supply

1. Short-run and long-run analyses

2. Sticky versus flexible wages and prices

3. Determinants of aggregate supply

C. Macroeconomic equilibrium

1. Real output and price level

2. Short and long run

3. Actual versus full-employment output

4. Economic fluctuations

IV. Financial Sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (15–20%)

A. Money, banking, and financial markets

1. Definition of financial assets: money, stocks, bonds

2. Time value of money (present and future value)

3. Measures of money supply

4. Banks and creation of money

5. Money demand

6. Money market

7. Loanable funds market

B. Central bank and control of the money supply

1. Tools of central bank policy

2. Quantity theory of money

3. Real versus nominal interest rates

V. Inflation, Unemployment, and Stabilization Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (20–30%)

A. Fiscal and monetary policies

1. Demand-side effects

2. Supply-side effects

3. Policy mix

4. Government deficits and debt

B. Inflation and unemployment

1. Types of inflation

a. Demand-pull inflation

b. Cost-push inflation

2. The Phillips curve: short run versus long run

3. Role of expectations

VI. Economic Growth and Productivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (5–10%)

A. Investment in human capital

B. Investment in physical capital

C. Research and development, and technological progress

D. Growth policy

VII. Open Economy: International Trade and Finance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (10–15%)

A. Balance of payments accounts

1. Balance of trade

2. Current account

3. Capital account

B. Foreign exchange market

1. Demand for and supply of foreign exchange

2. Exchange rate determination

3. Currency appreciation and depreciation

C. Net exports and capital flows

D. Links to financial and goods markets

Advanced Placement Examination Preparation

In addition to in class review, the students will complete free response questions from the College Board website in preparation for the AP exam.

Teacher Resources

Ray, Margaret and Anderson, David. Krugman’s Economics for AP.

New York: Worth Publishers. 2011.

Mankiw, Gregory N., Principles of Economics, 2nd Edition,

Fort Worth, Harcourt College Publishers.

Morton, John S. and Goodman, Rae Jean B., Advanced Placement

Economics, 3rd Edition, NCEE, New York, World Composition Services, Inc.



The New York Times

Student Online Resources

Reffonomics



Who wants to be a FED chairman game:

Econ Stories:

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