Must-Read: Matthew Kahn: ”Old School” Econ 101 for the New Generation of Economists

Must-Read: This will be very interesting to watch go forward: Matt Kahn is very sharp, and yet thinks substantially differently than I do…

Matthew Kahn: ”Old School” Econ 101 for the New Generation of Economists:

USC’s fall term starts on August 22nd. I give my first “Econ 101” lecture to 150 students in 8 days…

I haven’t taught Principles in 18 years.   Several of the Principles students that I taught at Columbia University are now tenured economics professors. I’m really looking forward to returning to teaching my favorite course.  UCLA wouldn’t let me teach this. As I stated in a recent post, I will be using this Greenlaw and Taylor free textbook. None of the superstars of econ will make a single royalty dollar from my students.  I apologize to them but at $200 a copy, their books aren’t worth it…. I have a clear vision for how I will teach the class…. Over the next 14 weeks, I’m going to write a new book that will be a supplement to the Greenlaw and Taylor text.  I will sell it for $1 on Amazon and it will be called;  “Old School” Econ 101 for the New Generation of Economists…

Why Study Economics? Scarcity…. Supply and Demand I…. Supply and Demand II Elasticities…. Using Supply and Demand to understand labor markets and the economics of poverty and immigration…. Using Supply and Demand to understand financial markets…. Consumer Choice…. Theory of the Firm…. Industrial Organization I…. The Economics of Monopoly and a brief introduction to strategy and game theory…. Government Intervention in the Market I: Consumer Protection…. Government Intervention in the Market II: Environmental Protection…. An introduction to statistics and economic hypothesis…. An introduction to the economics of politics (public choice and taxation)…. The Economics of International Trade and economic development…