Macroeconomics is the study of the economy. Students are introduced to the basic principles of scarcity, opportunity cost and marginal analysis. Macroeconomics is a good refresher course for those who have not used economic concepts in their careers for some time. This class is will remind students of the laws of supply and demand and how they affect price and quantities sold. Macroeconomics focuses on the overall economy, so the focus is primarily aggregate supply and demand. Macroeconomics also covers government influence, international trade and economic issues such as GDP, the Federal Reserve and fiscal policy.
Microeconomics is the study of economics at the singular level. That is, microeconomics studies the economic topics related to companies, consumers or households. This course would be a good refresher for individuals who must use economic concepts to make decisions in a new job. The laws of supply and demand are thoroughly covered in microeconomics as well as concepts such as elasticity, price and output optimization and types of competitive markets. All are concepts managers at companies incorporate when determining how best to sell the company's products.
Some universities offer a basic statistics class for business courses. Others offer a statistics class specifically for economics. This course would be a good refresher course for those who need to brush up on the quantitative concepts involved with making economic decisions. Those who wish to study economics must understand basic statistic concepts such as regression analysis, probability distribution, variance and correlation. These concepts are the foundation for quantitative analysis for many economic topics including price elasticity and comparative advantage.
Even those who have solid knowledge of economics may need to brush up their knowledge of calculus. This course offers an introduction to calculus and how it is applied to economics. Specifically, calculus studies the concepts and application of derivatives, or relaxation, of mathematical absolutes. Economics is often an imperfect science. Studying derivatives allow economists to better understand the effect of imperfect data models. These concepts are the basis for the economic models of elasticity, optimization and dynamic models.