Personal reflection on microeconomics learning

Microeconomics is one of those subjects that I knew little about before I started. In the course of studying it, I came to appreciate the value it has, not only for describing elements of how the world works, but for the way I could apply it to my daily life. By the end of the course, I could see the decisions that I was making in microeconomic terms; this actually helped me to make better decisions. I am glad that I was able to take this course and gain this knowledge about decision-making processes.

The economics of how we make our micro-level decisions is a fascinating study. Normally we think of GDP and other macroeconomic subjects as economics, so it is interesting to see the link between microeconomics, macro and the real world decisions we always make. This unique element of economic study takes the familiar economic concept of opportunity cost and shows us how we use it all the time.

Learning about market structure is important because it helps to explain why certain businesses behave the way they do. However, the most interesting part of the course is seeing how decisions are made. For example, ideas like opportunity cost, elasticity of demand and marginal decision-making are all interesting because they illustrate the fundamental levels of decision-making that contribute to the knowledge that we gain when we study subjects like macroeconomics, marketing, finance and even psychology and sociology. Microeconomics seems to me like the building blocks for some of these things, and a complement to others in describing decision-making and human behavior. It is fascinating to consider that these are the direct processes that are being used to decide things like whether we want to buy dessert at the end of a big meal, or the decision to upgrade a rental car.

However, it is also interesting to consider that because utility is non-financial in nature, any time there is any sort of cost the idea of marginal utility is being used in decision-making. One can consider the physical risks of, say, bungee-jumping vs. The thrill, and weigh this against the costs and benefits of a safer activity. Even when there are no finances involved, the concepts remain the same, and we will take into account opportunity cost, cost, and utility.

From the perspective of marketing, microeconomics is powerful knowledge indeed because it taps into the root of human behavior. The better a marketer understands how the human decision-making processes work, the better equipped the marketer is to sell the product. The same goes for company's setting production schedules -- understanding the production possibilities frontier is essential to understanding how business concepts like demand forecasting, marketing, pricing strategy and production strategy work.

As a foundational body of knowledge, I feel that microeconomics is quite underrated. At this point, I can see how the concepts learned in this class can be applied almost universally. I see microeconomics in almost everything now. I order an extra large because it costs only a little bit more than a large; I decided against going out because certain friends are going so the cost/fun dynamic is not favorable. I feel that knowing how I behave is essential to understanding how others behave, and in business this will be quite valuable.