Which of these is hard or easy?
I don’t care which one is easy or hard. I just want to take it so I can fulfil my social science requirement.
Take whichever one interests you more. Micro is about the behavior of specific markets, sellers, and buyers; macro is about the behavior of an overall economy of a region, country, or the whole world.
What kind of math is required?
Are you talking about AP or college classes?
College course.
Most intro level college courses in Economics require basic mathematics (algebra/precalculus).
Intermediate level college Economics courses, especially Micro, require basic Calculus (1, sometimes 2).
Less math in beginner’s macro than micro. They both use a lot of graphs.
I love graphs! So Macro is the one I should take, right?
I thought microeconomics was a lot more fun. Judging by “NASA2014” and “fulfill my social science requirement”, I would recommend microeconomics because it was more mathematical and I thought it was more intuitive (obvious).
Micro is (a bit) more math-intensive
I thought AP Micro was easier than Macro. It just made more sense to focus on the decisions of an individual rather than what happens to the entire economy
Just added Marco to my schedule. Thanks guys! I will let you know how I did Sad I couldn’t fit Mirco this semester. Maybe I will take it in the future.
Calculus 1 or 2 is the usual prerequisite for intermediate economics courses, but some colleges offer or require intermediate economics courses with higher math prerequisites (e.g. Chicago, UC Santa Cruz). Others offer such courses without even a calculus prerequisite (e.g. Penn State, Florida State, Georgia Tech). Although probably not relevant for the OP looking for a breadth course, the more math-intensive versions are better for preparing for PhD study in economics.
Introductory economics courses only use high school math at most.
A lot of students and the 2 macro/micro teachers said that macro is harder. Macro was very difficult for me.
Macro is about the behavior of the economy as a whole(aggregate demand/supply,real/nominal GDP). Micro is about the specific behavior of markets,sellers, & buyers.
It almost always depends on your college and the professor. Our intermediate micro courses don’t really use calculus but only “go over the calculus” in terms of definitions, for example.
I found macro to be quite difficult, mainly because we’ve used some more advanced concepts “usually” taught in intermediate macro, such as Blanchard’s text.
I would say Micro.