Principles of Microeconomics: Introduction and Supply & Demand - Lecture 1

Explore the foundational lecture of MIT's Principles of Microeconomics course, where Professor Jonathan Gruber introduces microeconomics as the study of how individuals and firms optimize their decisions in a world of scarcity. Learn the core concepts of supply and demand that form the backbone of economic analysis. This 38-minute video from MIT OpenCourseWare's Fall 2023 series explains constrained optimization and other fundamental principles that will guide your understanding of how markets function. Part of a complete course available on MIT OCW, this lecture sets the stage for understanding how economic agents make decisions when faced with limited resources.