All students of Economics and Business Administration face at least one course in Microeconomics. And many of them find it difficult.

Learning with us at Interactive Microeconomics, you will disagree!

How do we make it easy to understand theoretical concepts using graphics and maths? Our answer is (surprise!) by being interactive…

All students of Economics and Business Administration face at least one course in Microeconomics. And many of them find it difficult.

Learning with us at Interactive Microeconomics, you will disagree!

How do we make it easy to understand theoretical concepts using graphics and maths? Our answer is (surprise!) by being interactive…

We will ask you small questions so that you can investigate and try to answer on your own. You will obtain feedback and clues of how to think. Finally, you will be able to check the answers. What you discover by yourself is part of your experience and will be a useful tool for answering other questions. We intend to guide you in learning to learn.

The material presented here corresponds in scope to the level required in an Intermediate Microeconomics course at the University, but in form takes advantage of the flexibility of the screen. It is not limited to a linear text, but makes you think on new questions, show you clarifications or extensions on request, and allows you to interact with most figures. Also, you can access the main text from the definitions on the glossary, allowing you to instantly reach to the concepts you desire to learn or revise.

It is worth remembering in any case that, along with the possibilities of technology, pencil and paper remain a fantastic tool for interactive work.

In the rest of the website you will find more specific information about the material we offer.

We hope you find it useful and decide to join us on this journey!

The Apps

These apps can be seen as modules of an intermediate microeconomics course.

Both the topics covered and the level of depth may be suitable for most of the Microeconomics courses present in the undergraduate studies of Economics, Management or Finance.

The main feature that is intended to provide is to ask the reader for an interactive approach. In addition to being able to interact with many of the figures that will appear, a large number of questions will be posed, asking the reader to propose an answer before offering the solution.

You can choose whether to use only algebra or also give input to a little more abstract mathematical tools (basically use derivatives).

 

The Consumer / El consumidor

The Producer / El productor
(Cooming soon)

Take a look!

The text

The contents appear in an ordered and coherent way.

In the first reading, the usual way is a slow advance, stopping in the different examples, notes, figures and exercises proposed. But since these examples and notes are only opened on request, in later accesses, for example when reviewing a topic or preparing an exam, the text admits a fluent reading.

Mathematics

The main text uses only the basics of algebra and the graphical representation of simple functions.

However, it also optionally provides the use of essential calculus and some other mathematical tool, which allows to catch certain concepts and solve some problems more operatively. These mathematical elements can be incorporated into the mainline of the text using the     buttons.

\[ \frac{\sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \int_{y=c}^d \int_{x=a}^b e^{x+y} \mathrm{d}x \, \mathrm{d}y}{\frac{\partial f(x,y)}{\partial x}} \] Just kidding! 😄

Questions, tooltips and links

In order to involve the reader in reasoning, some concepts and relationships are motivated using successive questions. The reader is expected to try to answer these questions by himself so that the process will lead him to internalize the concepts and reasoning more deeply. The buttons Sol. will allow in any case to check, and, if needed, to reflect on the answers.

You can find some words in plane blue (or plain blue asterisks, *). They can be links to previous pages, where you can recall elements you are going to use, or to pop-up tooltips with additional explanations or side comments. These are usually exciting stuff at first time reading, but would only reduce fluency at later readings.

Examples

A large number of Example buttons appear throughout the text. Depending on their content, some open a new page, others only a pop-up window (tooltip type).

Some of them pose a problem or a specific case in which different questions appear. They are usually quite extensive, and it is worth working on them with care.

Others are concrete application of something previously seen in a more general way.

Examples raise a high number of questions that ask the reader to participate actively. The work will be much more productive if   Sol. buttons are used only after having tried oneself.

Definitions

The words in blue boldface give access to a definition of the concept (sometimes accompanied by an example).

The definitions are also accessible, in alphabetical order, from the available Glossary at the end of the table of contents (reachable from the Sol. icon). In all them, the possibility to access the main text where is explained is allowed in the Show more... button.

Interactive figures

Figures are a great tool in Microeconomics. They can represent concepts, relationships and problems. In many cases, they facilitate intuition and even the answer to many questions.

However, like any tool, you have to learn how to use them. That is one of the main objectives here.

Many of the figures allow interacting in different ways. Sliders, buttons, draggable elements, etc. Sometimes precise instructions are given, but it can be very fruitful to explore them on your own as well. The phrase 'a picture is worth a thousand words' can be adapted by saying that sometimes 'a figure is worth more than several equations'.

Summary and
self-evaluation

Closing each page, you will find a Summary, as well as a series of buttons that lead to definitions of central concepts.

You will also find a Self-evaluation button.

Several questions will allow you to assess whether you assimilated the contents of the page. Both correct and incorrect answers will include some feedback. Self-evaluation will make you see if you are ready to go ahead, or if you should return to any of the ideas.

Samples

On this page you can find three examples to test the different types of interactivity used in the apps.
Although they operate in different specific ways, the joint purpose is to achieve a deep (not memoristic, not mechanical) understanding of problems and their solutions.

The three examples do not form a complete section, but they can give an idea of the way in which the different concepts are approached; in this case the partial equilibrium in the market of a good.

Contact

Your comments are welcome!