Master 132 Economic Concepts and Theories: From the Invisible Hand to DSGE Models

In economics the vocabulary is the exam: define opportunity cost, separate elastic from inelastic demand, explain what stagflation did to the Phillips Curve, and you hold most of an intro course. The Economic Concepts & Theories deck (code UQ8809, 132 cards) on Flip It packs exactly that: the core definitions of micro and macro, plus the full timeline of economic schools from the Physiocrats to DSGE models.

What the 132 cards actually cover

Four blocks, best studied in this order:

1. Foundations — scarcity, Lionel Robbins' definition of economics, factors of production, positive vs normative economics, rational choice theory, ceteris paribus, opportunity cost, the production possibilities frontier.
2. Microeconomics — law of demand, law of supply, market equilibrium, surplus and shortage, price elasticity of demand, marginal utility, marginal cost and marginal revenue, normal / inferior / substitute / complementary goods, public vs private goods, externalities, monopoly, oligopoly, monopolistic competition, perfect competition, economies of scale, utility and profit maximization.
3. Macroeconomics — GDP (nominal vs real), inflation, deflation, CPI, recession, fiscal vs monetary policy, aggregate demand and supply, frictional / structural / cyclical unemployment, the natural rate of unemployment, tariffs, quotas, exchange rates, appreciation and depreciation.
4. History of economic thought — mercantilism, Physiocrats, Adam Smith's invisible hand and division of labor, Ricardo's comparative advantage, the labor theory of value, Malthus, Marx and surplus value, classical and neoclassical economics, Keynes (effective demand, multiplier effect, IS-LM), monetarism and MV = PQ, rational expectations, the Lucas Critique, real business cycle models, New Keynesian economics, the Austrian School, game theory and the Nash Equilibrium.

Sample cards

Two study tactics that fit this deck

Learn the pairs, not the cards. A large share of the deck comes in opposites or near-twins: positive vs normative, elastic vs inelastic, normal vs inferior good, substitute vs complement, surplus vs shortage, allocative vs productive efficiency, absolute vs comparative advantage, nominal vs real GDP, appreciation vs depreciation. When one side comes up, say the other out loud before flipping; mixing up the twin is the classic exam error.

Turn the schools of thought into a reaction chain. The history cards are easiest to remember as a sequence of answers to the previous school's failure: mercantilism → Physiocrats → Smith and the classicals → Marx → the neoclassical marginalists (1870-1910) → Keynes after the Depression → monetarism (Friedman) → stagflation breaks the Phillips Curve → rational expectations and New Classical → New Keynesian → the New Neoclassical Synthesis and DSGE. Recite the chain once a day and each card lands in a slot you already have.

Note that a few concepts appear twice with slightly different wording (scarcity, Malthus, surplus value, Adam Smith's three factors). Treat the second card as a free retrieval test rather than a duplicate.

Search for UQ8809 in the Flip It library to start. If you want to go from theory to the financial system, the Banking, Trade & Investments deck guide is the natural next step.