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Episode 1. Mental Health Care (Supply and Demand)

Mental health care improves lives, but people can only get it if the price they have to pay is not too high. As prices rise, mental health care use falls. Policies like Medicaid and mental health parity laws can determine what kind of care people can afford, and therefore what kind of care they get.

Quick Download

Download all of Episode 1 Curricular materials as a ZIP file.  Includes: Video, research brief, lesson plan with discussion and extension questions, summary podcast, and references. ​

01

Video

Videos show real-world case studies of applied economics research. These short and engaging videos, running approximately 5 minutes, are designed to be shown in class.

02

Research Brief

The research brief provides more information on scholars featured in the video and conducting related research. Summarizing the key economics concept of the episode and providing background on the experts, these research briefs are intended to be used as a student handout with the video.​

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03

Discussion and Extension Questions

The lesson plan provides brief background information on the topic to help instructors prepare before showing the video and connect it to their principles course. The activities included are scalable to classes of any size, and include a variety of discussion prompts, multiple choice and true/false questions, a supporting graph, and ideas to extend the lesson.

04

Episode in a Graph

Building off of the episode case study, our graph illustrates the key microeconomics lesson of supply and demand.

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Psychotherapy Session

05

Podcast

The podcast offers a way to extend the lesson. Instructors may give students an assignment to the podcast summary and reflect: What do you note here that you did not when watching the video? 

06

References

This list of references includes the work of experts featured in our videos and related studies cited throughout the episode and in the curriculum materials. Together, they provide the empirical foundation for the episode, drawing on both the latest academic research and the contributions of leading scholars in the field.

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(c) 2025 Uncommon Econ
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This work is funded by the National Science Foundation, Division of Undergraduate Education under grant DUE-2315696 and the CSWEP-SSRC Women in Economics and Mathematics Research Consortium.

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