Case Studies

Canada’s Pacific Groundfish Trawl Fishery: Ecosystem Conflicts by anonymous (CC BY).

An open case study by the University of British Columbia that looks at conflicts between British Columbia’s commercial fishing industry and environmental NGOs.

Collections

World Bank Open Knowledge Repository by various at World Bank Open Knowledge Repository (various CC licences).

This repository is the largest single source of knowledge on economic development around the world.

Courses

Lectures in Quantitative Economics by various (CC BY-ND).

This website presents a series of lectures on quantitative economic modelling. It provides a hands-on instruction manual, with all code written in modern, open source programming languages. Topics include algorithms and numerical methods for studying economic problems, related mathematical and statistical concepts, and basics of coding skills and software engineering. The intended audience is upper level undergraduate students and graduate students and researchers in economics, finance and related fields. There are two versions of the website, a Python version and a Julia version.

Open Learning Campus (check individual resources for permissions) by various (OLC) .

Inspired by the success and credibility of proven approaches to online learning, the OLC is a learning ecosystem that is open, interactive and networked. It leverages the vast knowledge of the World Bank Group (WBG) and its partners and converts it into actionable learning for effective development.

Textbooks

CORE: The Economy by various from Electric Book Works (CC BY-NC-ND).

This open textbook (available in English and in French) functions as a standard introduction-to-economics text.

CORE: Economy, Society, and Public Policy by various from Electric Book Works (CC BY-NC-ND).

An economics text that has been specifically designed for students from social science, public policy, business and management, engineering, biology, and other disciplines, who are not economics majors. The book is also being used successfully in courses for economics, business, and public policy majors, as well as in economics modules for Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE), and masters’ courses in Public Policy.

Economics for Life: Real-World Financial Literacy by Donald T. Wargo (CC BY-NC).

America has evolved into an ownership society. Home-buying decisions, resource allocation, debt exposure, and financial planning for the future are now left to individuals, many of whom may lack the financial understanding to evaluate and make sound decisions. Economics, with its insistence on quantifying ideas and putting specific quantitative values on all manner of phenomena, can help sort through the questions. Economics for Life: Real-World Financial Literacy is designed to help soon-to-be college graduates start their “real lives” with a better understanding of how to analyze the financial decisions that they will soon have to make. Written in an easy-to-read, conversational style, this textbook will help students learn how to make decisions on saving and investing for retirement, buying a car, buying a home, as well as how to safely navigate the use of debit and credit cards.

The Economics of Food and Agricultural Markets by Andrew Barkley (CC BY-NC).

The Economics of Food and Agricultural Markets is written for applied intermediate microeconomics courses.

Intermediate Microeconomics  by Joel Bruneau, Clinton Mahoney (CC-BY-NC-SA).

Intermediate Microeconomics is a comprehensive microeconomic theory text that uses real world policy questions to motivate and illustrate the material in each chapter. Intermediate Microeconomics is an approachable yet rigorous textbook that covers the entire scope of traditional microeconomic theory and includes two mathematical approaches, allowing instructors to teach the material with or without calculus. With real-world policy topics as an entrée into each subject, Intermediate Microeconomics will help students engage with the material and facilitate learning not only the concepts, but their importance and application as well. This edition was revised specifically to use in ECON 211 at the University of Saskatchewan. Enhancements in this edition include Canadian case examples, revised graphics, interactive glossary items, supplementary media, and finally, interactive self-checks.

Intermediate Microeconomics with Excel by Humberto Barreto (CC BY-SA).

This book is based on the idea that there is a particular framework used by economists to interpret observed reality. This framework has been called the economic way of thinking, the economic approach, and the method of economics.

Models in Microeconomic Theory: Expanded Second Edition by Martin J. Osborne  and Ariel Rubinstein (CC BY-NC-ND).

This resource covers basic models in current microeconomic theory. Part I (Chapters 1–7) presents models of an economic agent, discussing abstract models of preferences, choice, and decision making under uncertainty, before turning to models of the consumer, the producer, and monopoly. Part II (Chapters 8–14) introduces the concept of equilibrium, beginning, unconventionally, with the models of the jungle and an economy with indivisible goods, and continuing with models of an exchange economy, equilibrium with rational expectations, and an economy with asymmetric information. Part III (Chapters 15–16) provides an introduction to game theory, covering strategic and extensive games and the concepts of Nash equilibrium and subgame perfect equilibrium. Part IV (Chapters 17–20) gives a taste of the topics of mechanism design, matching, the axiomatic analysis of economic systems, and social choice.It states models and results precisely, and provides proofs for all results. It uses only elementary mathematics (with almost no calculus), although many of the proofs involve sustained logical arguments. It includes about 150 exercises. With its formal but accessible style, this textbook is designed for undergraduate students of microeconomics at intermediate and advanced levels.

Principles of Macroeconomic Literacy by John Scott, Ph.D. (CC BY-SA).

Principles of Macroeconomic Literacy emphasizes basic economic concepts such as value and cost in developing macroeconomic ideas. Students learn concepts involving credit markets, economic planning, and money through short fictional stories in which characters interact in an attempt to make themselves better off. Where many texts put the student in the position of an imagined macroeconomic policy dictator, Principles of Macroeconomic Literacy attempts to make macroeconomics comprehensible to students who live everyday.

Media Attributions

• BC Map by Adamwashere (CC BY-NC-SA).
• Sask map by Wikimedia Commons (public domain).