8 Best Economics Courses for Beginners
We compared 8 Economics courses currently listed on Coursera, edX and Udemy, priced from $19.99 to $215.00. 7 of them teach the subject directly and 1 are built around a certification exam. 3 come from a named university or institution, including University of California, Berkeley, Delft University of Technology and New York Institute of Finance. They are ordered by our CourseAsk score, which is built from how thoroughly each course describes what it teaches, whether it comes from a named institution, and how it compares on price — not from star ratings, which our course data does not include.
- Courses compared
- 8
- Price range
- $19.99 – $215.00
- Providers
- Coursera, edX, Udemy
- Last updated
- 31 Aug 2026
How these 8 courses were chosen
Every course below is a real, currently listed course from Coursera, edX, Udemy, matched to "economics" by our catalog and ordered by our CourseAsk score. Courses whose own title names the topic rank above those only tagged with it.
The grade on each entry scores how much the provider publishes about the course before you pay — the length and detail of the description, whether it lists learning outcomes and objectives — and whether a named university or institution stands behind it. A is fully documented and institution-backed; E is little more than a title and a price. Courses with almost nothing published are left ungraded rather than marked down, because an unknown course and a poor one are not the same thing.
There are no star ratings on this page — the course feeds we license do not include them, and we would rather leave a column out than fill it with a number we cannot stand behind. What we do have is price: these range from $19.99 to $215.00, as listed by the provider when we last updated the page.
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1
Economics and Finance Fundamentals
Offered by EDUCBA
Build practical economics and finance fundamentals for business, policy, and global trade decisions. Learn to analyze markets, firms, GDP, inflation, economic policy, and international trade with confidence. This Special...
$49.00listed price -
2
Fundamentals of Economics
Offered by University of California, Berkeley
Learn the basic concepts of economics through Data Science applications and Python programming. This is the first of a three course series.
$150.00listed price -
3
Fundamentals of Macroeconomics
Offered by Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
This introductory course to macroeconomic analysis provides a thorough view of what economists know about aggregate production, inflation, unemployment and economic policies and elevates the learner to a first-year under...
$159.00listed price -
4
Learn Economics from scratch, ECO03
Learn Economics from the scratch, ECO03, is the third of a five course series in my Economics specialization.No subject of the present day is so important as economics. Economics governs the life of the individual, Socie...
$19.99listed price -
5
Financial Markets Explained: Beginner's Guide
This module forms part of the full course “Global Financial Markets 2026: The Definitive Guide.” It is designed to provide learners with a clear and structured introduction to financial markets, financial assets, and fin...
$19.99listed price -
6
Introduction to Economic Concepts
Offered by Pearson
This course equips you to apply the economic way of thinking to analyze how resources are allocated in a world of scarcity. You will learn to determine opportunity cost, explain the factors of production, and describe ho...
$49.00listed price -
7
An Introduction to Credit Risk Management
Offered by Delft University of Technology
What is credit risk? Why is it so important, in modern economies, to correctly deal with it? This course combines theory with practice to answer these questions.
$215.00listed price -
8
Fundamentals of Market Structure
Offered by New York Institute of Finance
Learn the basics of market structure, including key market participants and what determines a market’s development.
$25.00listed price
Best Economics Courses for Beginners compared
| # | Course | Provider | Offered by | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Economics and Finance Fundamentals | Coursera | EDUCBA | $49.00 | View → |
| 2 | Fundamentals of Economics | edX | University of California, Berkeley | $150.00 | View → |
| 3 | Fundamentals of Macroeconomics | edX | Universidad Carlos III de Madrid | $159.00 | View → |
| 4 | Learn Economics from scratch, ECO03 | Udemy | — | $19.99 | View → |
| 5 | Financial Markets Explained: Beginner's Guide | Udemy | — | $19.99 | View → |
| 6 | Introduction to Economic Concepts | Coursera | Pearson | $49.00 | View → |
| 7 | An Introduction to Credit Risk Management | edX | Delft University of Technology | $215.00 | View → |
| 8 | Fundamentals of Market Structure | edX | New York Institute of Finance | $25.00 | View → |
Prices shown are the provider's listed price when we last updated this page. Confirm on their site before enrolling.
What the prices here tell you
The 8 priced courses on this page run from $19.99 to $215.00, with the middle of the range around $49.00 — a spread of $195.01. That is a wide gap for one subject. A higher price on this page usually reflects who is behind the course rather than how much material it contains, so it is worth opening two or three at different price points and comparing their syllabus before deciding.
Who is behind these courses
These courses come from Coursera, edX and Udemy. The platforms differ in how they sell: some charge once per course, others expect a subscription, and the listed price is not always what you pay at checkout after a promotion. 3 of these are produced by a named university or institution, including University of California, Berkeley, Delft University of Technology and New York Institute of Finance — which usually means a fixed syllabus and a recognised certificate, rather than an individual instructor’s own course.
Courses versus exam preparation
1 of the entries here are built around a certification exam rather than teaching Economics from scratch. They are the right choice only if you already know the material and want to pass a specific exam; if you are starting out, pick one of the taught courses first and come back to exam preparation afterwards.
Before you enrol
Open the provider’s own page and check three things this comparison cannot tell you: when the course was last updated, what the syllabus actually covers in its later sections, and what recent learners say. Prices shown here are the provider’s listed price when we last rebuilt this page on 31 August 2026 — they change often, and a promotion can move them substantially. We earn a commission if you enrol through our links, which costs you nothing and never affects the order courses appear in.