Course Descriptions
Students will examine the allocation of scarce resources and consider the economic reasoning used by consumers, producers, savers, investors, workers, and voters. Students will explore the concepts of scarcity, supply and demand, market structures, national economic performance, money and the role of financial institutions, economic stabilization, and trade. Finally, students will examine key economic philosophies and economists who have and continue to influence economic decision making.
Standard Economics
TOPICS COVERED
Scarcity and Economic Reasoning
Students will explore how limited resources restrict the goods and services that people may want and how consumers must choose some things and give up others. Students will consider systems and means created to meet and manage the issues of scarcity.
Supply and Demand
Students will understand the role that supply and demand, prices, and profits play in determining production and distribution in a free-market economy.
Market Structures
Students will understand the organization and role of business firms and analyze the various types of market structures in a market economy.
The Role of Government
Students will analyze perspectives on the roles of government in a market economy and explore means of financing and influencing the economy.
National Economic Performance
Students will understand how various models and instruments describe economic performance.
Trade
Students will understand why individuals, businesses, and governments trade goods and services and how trade affects the economies of the world.
Economics Honors
TOPICS COVERED
Scarcity and Economic Reasoning
Students will explore how limited resources restrict the goods and services that people may want and how consumers must choose some things and give up others. Students will consider systems and means created to meet and manage the issues of scarcity.
Supply and Demand
Students will understand the role that supply and demand, prices, and profits play in determining production and distribution in a free-market economy.
Market Structures
Students will understand the organization and role of business firms and analyze the various types of market structures in a market economy.
The Role of Government
Students will analyze perspectives on the roles of government in a market economy and explore means of financing and influencing the economy.
National Economic Performance
Students will understand how various models and instruments describe economic performance.
Trade
Students will understand why individuals, businesses, and governments trade goods and services and how trade affects the economies of the world.
AP Macro Economics
TOPICS COVERED
Scarcity and Economic Reasoning
Students will explore how limited resources restrict the goods and services that people may want and how consumers must choose some things and give up others. Students will consider systems and means created to meet and manage the issues of scarcity.
Supply and Demand
Students will understand the role that supply and demand, prices, and profits play in determining production and distribution in a free-market economy.
Market Structures
Students will understand the organization and role of business firms and analyze the various types of market structures in a market economy.
The Role of Government
Students will analyze perspectives on the roles of government in a market economy and explore means of financing and influencing the economy.
National Economic Performance
Students will understand how various models and instruments describe economic performance.
Trade
Students will understand why individuals, businesses, and governments trade goods and services and how trade affects the economies of the world.
TN Standards for Economics
E.01
Explain how consumers and producers confront the condition of scarcity by making choices that involve opportunity costs and tradeoffs.
E.02
Define land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurship, and explain why they are necessary for the production of goods and services.
E.03
Explain reasons for voluntary exchange, including positive and negative incentives.
E.04
Describe the basic characteristics and explain the functions of money, including its role as a medium of exchange, store of value, and unit of account.
E.05
Compare and contrast how the various modern economic systems (i.e., market, command, mixed) attempt to answer the following questions: What to produce? How to produce it? To produce it for whom?
E.06
Use a production possibilities curve to explain the concepts of: Choice, Growth, Opportunity cost, Productivity, Scarcity, Tradeoffs, Unemployment
E.07
Compare and contrast the theoretical principles of capitalism, socialism, and communism, as expressed through theorists such as Adam Smith and Karl Marx
E.08
Identify and explain the following broad goals of economic policy:
Efficiency, Equity, Freedom, Full employment, Growth, Price stability, and Security
E.09
Define supply and demand, provide relevant examples, and consider ceteris paribus (i.e., all things being equal).
E.10
Identify factors that cause changes in market supply and demand.
E.11
Use concepts of price elasticity of demand and supply to explain and predict changes in quantity as prices fluctuate.
E.12
Define market equilibrium, and explain how supply and demand guide prices towards equilibrium to avoid surpluses or shortages.
E.13
Describe how supply and demand determine equilibrium price, and graph examples on a curve.
E.14
Describe causes of shortages and surpluses.
E.15
Analyze effects of shortages and surpluses on supply and demand.
E.16
Compare and contrast the following forms of business organization: sole proprietorship, partnership, and corporation.
E.17
Explain the function of profit in a market economy as an incentive for entrepreneurs to accept the risks of business failure.
E.18
Define stock, and describe the connections between capital, stock markets, banks, and the economy.
E.19
Analyze the various ways and reasons that firms grow either through reinvestment of financial capital or through horizontal, vertical, and conglomerate mergers.
E.20
Summarize the role and historical impact of economic institutions (such as labor unions, multinationals, and nonprofit organizations) within market economies.
E.21
Identify the basic characteristics of monopoly, oligopoly, monopolistic competition, and perfect competition.
E.22
Explain how competition impacts pricing and production in market structures.
E.23
Identify laws and regulations adopted in the U.S. to promote competition among firms.
Explain ways that firms engage in price and non-price competition.
E.25
Describe the characteristics of natural monopolies and the purposes of government regulation of these monopolies (such as utilities).
E.26
Demonstrate how firms with market power can determine price and output.
Explore the roles that research and development, equipment and technology, and the training of workers have in increasing productivity.
E.28
Describe potential factors that influence the earnings of workers.
E.29
Describe methods of revenue (e.g., taxes and bonds) for governments, and explain ways that they allocate funds.
Analyze reasons that government deficits, debts, and surpluses are accrued, and compare and contrast government budgets with personal budgets.
E.31
Define progressive, proportional, and regressive taxation, and discuss how federal, state, and local governments utilize them.
Analyze economic costs and benefits of government policies (e.g., Social Security, Medicare, earned income credits, military expenditures, and public education).
Explore potential national debt management strategies, considering their feasibility and implications.
Describe the purpose, role, and function of the Federal Reserve.
Define fiscal and monetary policy, and explain how the government uses these in its efforts to influence the economy.
Explain how price stability, full employment, and economic growth influence fiscal and monetary policy making.
Compare the various schools of thought on governmental intervention in the economy, including: classical (Adam Smith), demand-siders (John Maynard Keynes), the Austrian school (Friedrich Hayek), supply-siders (Arthur Laffer), and Monetarists (Milton Friedman).
Analyze how governments intend to incentivize entrepreneurs through policies (e.g., tax, regulatory, education, research support policies, patents, and copyrights).
Define gross domestic product (GDP), economic growth, unemployment, and inflation, and explain how they are calculated.
Define externalities, and identify examples of them.
Identify the different causes of inflation, and analyze inflation’s impact.
Explain the role of banks and other financial institutions in the U.S. economy.
Differentiate between different types of unemployment (e.g., structural, functional, seasonal, underemployment, and cyclical).
E.44
Describe the impact of investment and consumer debt as it relates to the national economy.
E.45
Explain the benefits of trade among individuals, regions, and countries.
E.46
Define and distinguish between absolute and comparative advantage, and explain how most trade occurs because of a comparative advantage.
E.47
Describe causes and consequences of trade barriers (e.g., quotas, tariffs, and subsidies) on consumers and producers.
E.48
Define trade deficit, and identify reasons why trade deficits exist.
E.49
Explain how changes in exchange rates impact the purchasing power of people in the U.S. and other countries.
E.50
Evaluate the arguments for and against free trade.