AP Macroeconomics
Course Code: 40544
Course Level: Advanced Placement
Course Offering: Year-long
Course Description
The purpose of an AP course in macroeconomics is to give students a
thorough understanding of the principles of economics that apply to an
economic system as a whole.
A. Major concepts/content. Students understand the choices they
must make as producers, consumers, investors, and tax payers. The
study of economics provides students with the knowledge and
decision-making tools necessary for understanding how a society
must organize its limited resources to satisfy its unlimited wants. The
content will focus on the analysis of following fundamental economic
and macroeconomic concepts/topics:
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Economic Basics
Scarcity and Opportunity Costs
Production Possibilities Curves
Absolute and Comparative Advantage
Demand
Supply
Equilibrium
Government Impact
Circular Flow
GDP
Other Measures of National Income
Inflation and Price Indices
Business Cycle
Unemployment
Classical Economics
Aggregate Supply
Aggregate Demand
Propensities and Multipliers
Equilibrium
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Economic Growth
The AE Model
Understanding the AD/AS Model
Comparative Advantage and International Trade
Balance of Payments
Exchange Rates
Graphing Foreign Exchange
International Value of Currency
Trade Barriers
Understanding International Trade and Finance
The Money Supply
Loanable Funds Market
Equation of Exchange
Money Creation
Fiscal Policy
Automatic Stabilizers
Debt vs. Deficit Interview
Fiscal Policy and Interest Rates
The Federal Reserve System
Monetary Policy
Interest Rates and the Impact on Financial Capital
Phillips Curve
Modern Theories
Understanding Policies
Guided Review
B. Special note. See Advanced Placement syllabus for specific content
requirements.
C. Course Requirements. After successfully completing this course, the
student will:
1. Understand the fundamental concepts of the American mixed
economic system.
2. Analyze the various aspects of the gross national product and its
value as an economic barometer.
3. Examine aggregate supply and determine how much of our
resources should be devoted to increasing productive capacity as
opposed to how much should be spent on current consumption.
4. Compare the components of aggregate demand, including total
consumer spending, business investments and government
spending.
5. Evaluate remedies to deal with the problems of unemployment
including frictional, structural and cyclical unemployment.
6. Differentiate between inflation and deflation; more specifically,
demand-pull inflation and cost-push inflation.
7. Understand the role of the federal reserve system as it manages
the nation's monetary policy.
8. Distinguish between the President and Congress as each seeks
to establish the nation's fiscal policy.
9. Apply the basic methodology associated with the study of
macroeconomics.
10. Apply research, study, critical-thinking and decision-making
skills and demonstrate the use of new and emerging technology
in problem solving.
D. Course Assessment: Assessments can be in the form of self-checks,
practice lessons, multiple choice questions, writing assignments, freeresponse essays, oral assessments, and discussions.
Textbooks:
Provided by FLVS
AP Microeconomics
Course Code: 40554
Course Level: Advanced Placement
Course Offering: Year-long
Course Description
The purpose of an AP course in microeconomics is to give students a
thorough understanding of the principles of economics that apply to the
functions of individual decision makers, both consumers and producers,
within the economic system. It places primary emphasis on the nature and
functions of product markets, and includes the study of factor markets and
of the role of government in promoting greater efficiency and equity in the
economy.
A. Major concepts/content. In order for students to acquire the
knowledge and decision-making tools necessary for understanding how
society must organize its limited resources to satisfy its unlimited
wants, students learn factors that influence the economic system. The
content will focus on the analysis of the following fundamental
economic and macroeconomic concepts/topics:
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Economic Basics
Production Possibilities Frontier
Types of Economic Systems
Economic Reasoning Activity
Absolute vs. Comparative Advantage
Understanding Economic Basics
Equilibrium
Shifts in Supply and Demand
Models of Consumer Demand
Excise Tax
Production Costs
Production Curve Graph
Perfect Competition
Short and Long Run
Consumer and Producer Surplus
Monopolies
Monopolistic Competition
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Oligopoly
Market Structure
Circular Flow
Marginal Productivity Theory
Determinants of Demand and Resources
Wages
Outsourcing
Private vs. Public Goods
Externalities
Economic Situations: Environment and Government
Introduction to Taxes
Income Distribution
Guided Review
B. Special note. See Advanced Placement syllabus for specific content
requirements.
C. Course Requirements. After successfully completing this course, the
student will:
1. Understand the fundamental concepts of the American mixed
economic system.
2. Analyze the circular flow of resources, goods, services and
money in markets.
3. Compare the relationship between supply and demand in the
competitive market.
4. Evaluate market structures and analyze structures that are
highly competitive as compared to those that contain a single
seller.
5. Examine the various aspects of the functional distribution of
income and the personal distribution of income.
6. Analyze why markets fail and public policy responses to those
failures.
7. Analyze the impact of the role of government in the American
economy from historical and contemporary perspectives.
8. Apply the basic methodology associated with the study of
microeconomics with attention to critical thinking skills and
development of economic essay.
9. Apply research, study, critical-thinking, and decision-making
skills and demonstrate the use of new and emerging technology
in problem solving.
D. Course Assessment: Assessments can be in the form of self-checks,
practice lessons, multiple choice questions, writing assignments, freeresponse essays, oral assessments, and discussions
Textbooks:
Provided by FLVS