ECON 111 - Principles of Microeconomics (Fall 2017)

Syllabus

Group request form

Schedule an introductory meeting: I like to meet with students individually for 10-15 minutes to learn more about you, your goals as a student generally, and your goals as a student in this course. It's very much casual. It's also optional, but I strongly encourage you to participate. To sign up for a slot, click the link to the left and pick a time in the Doodle poll. If none of these slots works for you, send me an email and we can work out an alternative. Meetings are in my office, Willis 215.

Lecture slides: (blue subtopics below link to YouTube videos on those topics; italicized subtopics are optional and will not be covered on exams)

Introduction: An intro to economics; positive and normative; assumptions, models and implications.
Consumer Theory 1: Preferences; rationality; the utility function; opportunity cost; marginal utility.
Consumer Theory 2: Canonical utility functions, indifference curves, ordinal equivalence, marginal rate of substitution, budget constraints.
Consumer Theory 3: Acronyms; choice with cd and log preferences; choice with perfect complements; choice with perfect substitutes; the golden rule.
Consumer Theory 4: Demand; market demand; changes in demand v. quantity demanded; income and substitution effects & price elasticity of demand.
Producer Theory 1: Intro; production; isoquants and isocosts; minimizing cost; cost curve.
Producer Theory 2: Types of costs; maximizing profits; minimizing losses; supply.
Producer Theory 3: Market supply; elasticity; long-run; capital and investment; present values.
Markets and Efficiency 1: Markets; demand shocks; supply shocks, surplus and efficiency.
Markets and Efficiency 2: Exchange economies; utilitarianism; Pareto efficiency; productive efficiency; allocative efficiency; edgeworth boxes.
Industrial Organization 1 (Monopoly and Monopolistic Competition): Monopoly; marginal revenue; welfare analysis; policy; monopolistic competition.
Industrial Organization 2 (Oligopoly): Intro; cartels; Cournot; Bertrand.
Industrial Organization 3 (Game Theory): Intro; Nash equilibrium; prisoner's dilemma; finitely repeated games; infinitely repeated games.
Extensions 1 (Externalities, Public Goods, and CP Resources): Externalities; correcting for externalities; examples; public goods and common-pool resources.
Extensions 2 (Taxation and Information): Taxes; tax bases; tax incidence; DWL; uncertainty; adverse selection; signaling and screening; moral hazard.

Problem sets: 1 (Solutions), 2

Optional practice problems: 1 (Solutions)

Homework readings (other than textbook) and videos:

September 13 - Friedman (1953)
September 18 - The Rationality Debate, Simmering in Stockholm & Are we in control of our own decisions?
September 27 - Choice, happiness and spaghetti sauce & The paradox of choice & Joan Robinson's critique of utility
November 15 - New thoughts on capital in the 21st century & We need to talk about an injustice

Other fun articles/videos (optional):

2010 was a good year to die & Split or steal

Student resources:

Prefect: Adam Bigelow (bigelowa@carleton.edu)
Economics Department Student Advisors: TBD