AGBS 201 - Microeconomics in Agriculture

Credits: 5
Introduction to microeconomics as applied to production, consumption, and marketing issues in the agricultural and production sectors of the economy. Coverage of the movement and process through which raw food commodities travel through to the final consumer will guide the discussions and course outcomes. Students may not receive credit for both AGBS 201 and ECON& 201.
Course Outcomes:
Development and coverage of these outcomes will be conducted through the lens of the agricultural industry in preparation for the student’s future workplace application.

Define and explain economic terms.
Develop research skills and awareness of current agriculture events with connections to the micro level.
Use formulas to calculate values for given data. Such as, elasticity, time value of money, costs, revenues, and profit.
Create graphical representations of data, such as production functions, cost curves, supply and demand, indifference curves, production possibilities curves, and budget lines.
Interpret graphs to detect patterns.
Interpret data to make economic decisions that affect farming practices.
Evaluate the effects of changes in demand and supply on the market price and equilibrium quantity and explain the rationing function of prices.
Describe the advantages and disadvantages of various agricultural organization structures and contracts.
Correlate political and social influences on personal choice and access to food.
Compare and contrast perfectly competitive firms’ characteristics and output/pricing decisions to the imperfectly competitive solutions.

Course Topics:

Economics as a science
Creating and interpreting graphs
Scarcity and the world of trade-offs
Demand and supply
Consumer choice
Elasticity
Rents, profits and the financial environment of business
The Firm: cost and output determination
Market models
Regulation and antitrust behavior

LEC Credits: 5
LEC hours per week: 5
Formerly: AGRI 201 and AGRI 202.
Course Attribute(s): Social Sciences
OEE Permitted: No
Grading Basis: Graded
Instructor/Department Consent Required: No Consent
CIP Code: 01.0101
Default Section Size/Cap: 30
Quarter(s) offered:

Spring