Fundamentals of Economics
- Free to audit
- Paid certificate
- Course certificate
- Beginner
- 4 weeks
Fundamentals of Economics is a four-week BerkeleyX course taught by Eric Van Dusen, a lecturer in data science and economics at UC Berkeley, and the first of a three-course series that teaches economics through data science and Python. Rather than starting from textbook diagrams, it has you derive demand and supply curves from data, code and solve simple equations in Python, graph the basic equations used in microeconomics, and look at applications and illustrations from across the field. The course page lists Data 8X as a prerequisite, so some Python and data experience is expected even though edX classes the course as introductory. It is self-paced at five to ten hours a week.
Auditing is free for as long as the course run is active, without graded assignments or a certificate; a verified certificate costs $150. Instruction is in English with English transcripts. The two follow-on courses, Advanced Concepts in Economics and Real-World Applications of Economics, are also on edX.
What you’ll learn
- Grasp core economic concepts by working through them in code
- Derive and visualise demand and supply curves from data
- Write and solve simple equations in Python
- Graph the basic equations used in microeconomics
- Connect the models to applications drawn from across economics
Who it’s for
Learners with some Python who want to see introductory economics built from data rather than from lecture slides; not suitable as a first programming course.
Source: BerkeleyX (opens in a new tab) · Verified · Report a change
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