Which is more useful for someone who doesn’t plan to study economics past intro level? I heard Micro is more useful, but they are taught as a sequence at my school, with Macro coming first. Would this make it difficult to just take Micro with no Econ background?
Macro definitely make Micro easier. Micro is harder to pick up with no background in economics. Also, Macro is a good intro into Econ bc if you hate Macro you will almost certainly hate Micro as Micro is harder and more in-depth.
Way back when I took them micro first, ended up with an econ minor and As in most of my econ classes. I always figured that was the correct sequence until I saw this thread.
The two topics are almost independent of each other. Order doesn’t really matter.
Order doesn’t matter.
If you want to understand the news, macro. It’s about money supply and the things that affect it. So when you hear debate about the fed raising rates, or what the impact of in easing taxes is, macro will give you the framework for understanding.
Micro is mainly about pricing, both from the company and consumer side. When you think about things such as price points, lowering prices to get more people to buy, luxury good pricing, etc., that’s micro. This is the theory that is often extended to other areas, like the economics of crime or gambling. In that sense, micro is probably more useful to you as an individual.