Free Market Economics

8 one-hour lectures from Krystal Slivinski, an assistant professor of economics at Grand Canyon University. Before teaching economics, Krystal lobbied the Arizona Legislature to improve tax, budget and regulatory policies,  and trained K-12 teachers to teach economics with the Arizona Council on Economic Education. Prior to moving to Arizona, Krystal spent nearly a decade in Washington, D.C. working in think tanks and the public policy world. 

  1.     The Economic Way of Thinking:
  • People make choices (scarcity and opportunity cost);
  • Incentives matter;
  • Self-interest and Adam Smith;
  1.     How Trade Creates Wealth:
  • Trading game;
  • Tag check activity;
  • Specialization and division of labor;
  1.     The Free Market System: Prices.
  • How supply and demand work (simplified);
  • What prices know that you don’t (Hayek’s influence);
  • Why minimum wage doesn’t make sense;
  1.     The Free Market System: Profits.
  • Profits and losses are signals;
  • How to measure and encourage entrepreneurship;
  • Creative destruction;
  1.     Property Rights and Rule of Law.
  • Economic Institutions;
  • Transparency and predictability in laws;
  • Accountability of government/corruption;
  1.     Public Choice Theory.
  • Voting myths;
  • Median voter hypothesis;
  • Incentives that politicians and bureaucrats face;
  1.     Failed Solutions to Poverty around the Globe.
  • Foreign aid game;
  • Missions and volunteers (article);
  • Types of failed economic systems;
  1.     The Morality of Capitalism.
  • Self-ownership and responsibility;
  • Capitalism affirms dignity to the poor;
  • Myth of the virtuous poor;
Watch a video

Course Explanation