High School Economics Topics

National Economics Standards

The 20 voluntary National Standards for Economics, made available by the NCEE, comprise an organized list of economics topics suitable for grades 1-12. The NCEE’s 51 key economics concepts focus on the portion of that list common to all U.S. State requirements for high school economics.

The table below shows how each of the 51 Key Concepts fits into the National Standards.

Each key concept listed below links to free resources described at High School Economics Topics.

If you are looking for a table showing how each of the National Standards fits into the key concepts, see The 51 Key Economics Concepts.

The National Standards

Basic Economics | Trade and International Economics | Microeconomics | Macroeconomics | Government and Economics

Basic Economics

National Standard	Key Concepts	Other Related Topics
Standard 1: Scarcity	Scarcity	Goods, Services, Wants
	Consumers	Consumer Economics
	Opportunity Cost	Choice
	Productive Resources	Capital Resources, Human Resources, Natural Resources, Factors of Production
	Human Capital	Human Resources
	Entrepreneurs	Entrepreneurship, Inventors
	Producers	Production
Standard 2: Marginal Cost/Benefit	Decision Making and Cost-Benefit Analysis	Decision Making, Benefit, Costs, Marginal Analysis, Cost/Benefit Analysis
	Profit	Profit Maximization, Profit Motive
Standard 3: Allocation of Goods and Services	Supply
	Economic Systems	Command Economy, Market Economy, Traditional Economy
	Competition and Market Structures	Market Structure
Standard 4: Role of Incentives	Incentives	Choice

Trade and International Economics

National Standard	Key Concepts	Other Related Topics
Standard 5: Gain from Trade	Trade, Exchange and Interdependence	Barter, Exchange, Voluntary Exchange
	Benefits of Trade and Comparative Advantage
	Barriers to Trade
	Balance of Trade and Balance of Payments	Exports, Imports
	Foreign Currency Markets and Exchange Rates	Exchange Rate
Standard 6: Specialization and Trade	Division of Labor and Specialization	Division of Labor, Specialization, Transaction Costs
	Benefits of Trade and Comparative Advantage	Gains from Trade, Factor Endowments
	Productive Resources	Factors of Production, Production
	Economic Development (N.B. closest fit)
	Real vs. Nominal	Relative Price
	Employment and Unemployment	Full Employment

Microeconomics

National Standard	Key Concepts	Other Related Topics
Standard 7: Markets—Price and Quantity Determination	Demand	Quantity Demanded
	Supply	Quantity Supplied
	Markets and Prices	Markets
	Competition and Market Structures	Market Structure
	Real vs. Nominal	Relative Price
	Inflation	Price Stability
	Price Ceilings and Floors	Price Floor
	Foreign Currency Markets and Exchange Rates	Exchange Rate
Standard 8: Role of Price in Market System	Demand	Determinants of Demand, Law of Demand, Substitute Good
	Elasticity of Demand (N.B. closest fit)
	Supply	Determinants of Supply, Law of Supply
	Markets and Prices	Markets
	Competition and Market Structures	Market Structure
	Market Failures	Non-price Determinants
	Price Ceilings and Floors	Price Floor, Price Ceiling
	Real vs. Nominal	Price, Relative Price
	Inflation	Price Stability
	Foreign Currency Markets and Exchange Rates	Exchange Rate
Standard 9: Role of Competition	Competition and Market Structures	Market Structure
	Market Failures	Non-price Competition, Levels of Competition
Standard 10: Role of Economic Institutions	Economic Institutions	Legal and Social Framework, Legal Forms of Business, Legal Foundations of a Market Economy, Nonprofit Organization
	Property Rights
	Credit	Mortgage, Borrower, Banking
	Compound Interest	Interest
	Employment and Unemployment	Labor Union

Macroeconomics

National Standard	Key Concepts	Other Related Topics
Standard 11: Role of Money	Money	Currency, Definition of Money, Characteristics of Money, Functions of Money
	Monetary Policy and the Federal Reserve	Money Supply
	Money Management and Budgeting
	Trade, Exchange and Interdependence
Standard 12: Role of Interest Rates	Compound Interest	Interest Rate
	Monetary Policy and the Federal Reserve	Money Supply
	Real vs. Nominal
	Risk and Return
	Saving and Investing	Savers
Standard 13: Role of Resources in Determining Income	Income Distribution	Functional Distribution of Income, Personal Distribution of Income, Functional Distribution
	Aggregate Demand (AD)
	Aggregate Supply (AS)
	Demand	Derived Demand
	Productive Resources	Human Resources, Labor, Labor Market, Wage, Prices of Inputs, Marginal Resource, Product
Standard 14: Profit and the Entrepreneur	Entrepreneurs	Entrepreneurship, Inventors, Innovation
	Decision Making and Cost-Benefit Analysis	Cost/Benefit Analysis, Costs, Costs of Production
	Risk and Return	Risk
	Roles of Government	Taxation, Taxes
	Profit
Standard 15: Growth	Economic Growth	Intensive Growth, Standard of Living
	Productivity
	Incentives
	Compound Interest	Interest Rate
	Opportunity Cost
	Risk and Return	Risk, Business
	Insurance	Economic Security
	Decision Making and Cost-Benefit Analysis	Trade-off, Trade-offs among goals
	Saving and Investing	Investing, Investment, Savers, Savings
	Financial Markets	Stock Market
	Technology	Technological Changes
	Productive Resources	Health and Nutrition, Physical Capital, Production, Factors of Production
	Human Capital
	Markets and Prices	Economic Efficiency
	Entrepreneurs	Business, Businesses and Households
	Income Distribution	Economic Equity
	Economic Systems	Economic Freedom

Government and Economics

National Standard	Key Concepts	Other Related Topics
Standard 16: Role of Government	Roles of Government	Taxation, Taxes, Income Tax
	Budget Deficits and Public Debt	Bonds, Government Expenditures, Government Revenues
	Income Distribution	Redistribution of Income, Transfer Payments
	Competition and Market Structures	Maintaining Competition, Monopolies, Natural Monopoly
	GDP	Income
	Property Rights
	Market Failures	Public Goods, Externalities, Positive Externality, Negative Externality, Regulation, Maintaining Regulation, Non-clearing Markets)
Standard 17: Using Cost/Benefit Analysis to Evaluate Government Programs	Government Failures and Public Choice Analysis	Special Interest Group
	Barriers to Trade
	Decision Making and Cost-Benefit Analysis	Cost/Benefit Analysis, Benefit, Costs
Standard 18: Macroeconomy — Income/Employment, Prices	GDP	Gross Domestic Product, Per Capita Gross Domestic Product, Potential Gross Domestic Product, Circular Flow, Macroeconomic Indicators
	Real vs. Nominal	Nominal Gross Domestic Product, Real Gross Domestic Product
Standard 19: Unemployment and Inflation	Business Cycles	Unemployment, Unemployment Rate
	Employment and Unemployment	Labor Force, Unemployment, Unemployment Rate, Types of Unemployment
	Inflation	Causes of inflation, Consumer Price Index (CPI), Deflation
Standard 20: Monetary and Fiscal Policy	Inflation	Causes of inflation
	Monetary Policy and the Federal Reserve	Tools of the Federal Reserve, Discount Rate, Central Banking System, Open Market Operations, Reserve Requirements,
	Budget Deficits and Public Debt	Federal Budget, Budget, Budget Deficit, Budget Surplus, National Debt
	Fiscal Policy