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A market price reflects scarcity, willingness to pay, and production conditions at the same time, which is why price changes can signal deeper shifts in incentives.
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01:220:102 · Economics · School 01 — New Brunswick School of Arts and Sciences
Introduction to Microeconomics studies how households, firms, and governments make choices under scarcity. Rutgers describes it through supply and demand, monopoly and other market structures, price controls, pollution, and economic efficiency, while the sample syllabus shows a semester that moves from core principles into consumer choice, production, strategy, and market failure.
How hard?
Students rate teaching
SIRS · 10,470 responses · 2014–2025
Spring 2027
4 open in snapshot · 3 instructors
When it meets
College Avenue
Checked-in sections · current seat counts are unavailable.
AI-generated overview
Higher means more demanding · AI summary
6 units · topic sequence may vary by instructor
The course opens with the core economic habit of mind: choices are made under scarcity, so trade-offs and incentives matter. Early weeks define the language of opportunity cost and move quickly into supply, demand, and equilibrium.
Once the basic market diagram is in place, the class uses it to study who gains, who loses, and what happens when governments or shocks alter price and quantity. Elasticity becomes the tool that explains why identical policies can have very different effects across markets.
The middle of the semester shifts from market-level diagrams to individual behavior. Students learn how consumers respond to prices, income, and constraints, and how economists formalize those choices rather than treating them as random preference statements.
The course then flips to the producer side: how firms translate technology into costs, how those costs affect output and pricing choices, and why the logic changes across perfect competition, monopoly, oligopoly, and monopolistic competition.
Rutgers' learning goals explicitly include strategic interaction, so students usually see at least a basic introduction to game-theoretic thinking. The point is not advanced math; it is understanding how outcomes change when one firm's decision depends on another's response.
The final unit uses microeconomic tools on broader policy problems: labor-market frictions, externalities, public goods, inequality, and international trade. This is where the course most clearly connects theory to contemporary debates about regulation and efficiency.
Rutgers Reddit discussion presents 102 as very doable when students keep up with readings, graphs, and practice problems, but not as a pure memorization elective. The most repeated theme is that instructor style matters a lot, especially for how clearly the class connects diagrams to real examples.
A market price reflects scarcity, willingness to pay, and production conditions at the same time, which is why price changes can signal deeper shifts in incentives.
Two markets can face the same tax or shortage and respond very differently depending on how elastic buyers and sellers are.
Production and pricing decisions come from cost structures, expected demand, and the competitive environment, not from isolated formulas.
Many policy questions in microeconomics ask whether a market outcome is efficient, but that does not automatically settle whether it is equitable or desirable.
Common pitfall
Instead
Always ask whether the change came from the good's own price or from an outside determinant such as income, cost, or technology.
Common pitfall
Instead
Practice saying in words what each axis, curve, and shift represents before solving the problem numerically.
Common pitfall
Instead
Link each market structure to its specific assumptions about entry, rivalry, and price-setting power.
Common pitfall
Instead
Keep equity, distribution, and external costs separate from the narrower efficiency question.
4 open · College Avenue
| Section | Status | Instructor | Meeting | Campus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0114620 | Open | Elgawly | Tuesday 2:00 PM-3:20 PM at SC 123; Thursday 2:00 PM-3:20 PM at SC 123SC 123 | College Avenue |
| 0214621 | Open | Elgawly | Wednesday 12:10 PM-1:30 PM at SC 123; Friday 2:00 PM-3:20 PM at SC 123SC 123 | College Avenue |
| 0314622 | Open | Goldhammer | Tuesday 8:30 AM-9:50 AM at SC 123; Friday 8:30 AM-9:50 AM at SC 123SC 123 | College Avenue |
| 0614625 | Open | Catovic | Tuesday 5:40 PM-7:00 PM at SC 135; Thursday 5:40 PM-7:00 PM at SC 135SC 135 | College Avenue |
Historical student surveys
Teaching
4.07
Course quality
4.03
Response rate
44.0%
Coverage
126 offerings · 2014–2025
| Instructor | Offerings | Teaching | Quality |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michael Elgawly | 22 | 4.41 | 4.29 |
| Alexandre Hohmann | 10 | 4.11 | 4.00 |
| Alex Hohmann | 9 | 3.98 | 3.91 |
| Skydel Jack | 9 | 3.32 | 3.49 |
| Elgawly Michael | 8 | 4.34 | 4.26 |
| Bruce Madariaga | 7 | 4.20 | 4.16 |
Catalog and planning context
Credits
3
Current campuses
College Avenue
Current availability
4 open of 4
Catalog terms
Fall, Spring, Summer
Core codes
ECN, SCL, SOEHS
Loaded terms
6
Any Course EQUAL or GREATER Than: (01:640:111)
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