ECON 111 - Principles of Microeconomics (Spring 2018)

ONLINE COURSE EVALUATION

Syllabus

Prefect sessions: Adam Bigelow (bigelowa@): Wed & Sun 8pm-9pm in Willis 204 && Nathan Eisner (eisnern@): Mon & Thu 9pm-10pm in Willis 114

(you can go to either one, regardless of section)

Group request form

Schedule an introductory meeting: (forms closed, but drop by) 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 320.

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 (Solutions), 3 (Solutions), 4 (Solutions), 5 (Solutions), 6 (Solutions)

Exams: Midterm 1 (Solutions, Results), Midterm 2 (Solutions, Results), Final (Solutions, Results)

Past exams: Midterm 1 (Solutions, Results), Midterm 2 (Solutions, Results), Final (Solutions, Results)

Additional practice problems: PP1 (Solutions), PP2 (Solutions), PP3 (Solutions), PP4 (Solutions), PP5 (Solutions)

Homework readings (other than textbook) and videos:

• Friedman (1953)
• Hodgson (2012)
  • The Rationality Debate, Simmering in Stockholm & Are we in control of our own decisions?
  • Choice, happiness and spaghetti sauce & The paradox of choice & Joan Robinson's critique of utility
  • 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 & Taxes and birth timing

EXAM DETAILS

• Stuff I maybe shouldn't have revealed in the optional review session but did:
  • No "solve for the Edgeworth box eqm." questions. But there could still be contract curve or conceptual stuff.
  • Forget about TED talk and qualitative readings (Friedman, Hodgson...). It's not on the exam.
  • No multiple choice.
  • Nothing on ordinal equivalence.
  • The exam is mandatory self-scheduled, meaning that you can take it in OLIN 149 during any of the ten exam slots. You don't actually schedule it, per se, you just show up. The exam will be waiting for you in an envelope with your name on it.
    • DON'T come to our regular classroom during our scheduled exam slot -- it is mandatory self-scheduled, meaning you must take it in the Olin 149.
      • If you really want to take it in our scheduled exam slot, then you still can, but you take it in the Olin.
    • Because you will be taking the exam at different times, academic integrity requires you to not discuss the exam with any other student until all students have taken it. If another students asks you as much as "Was it hard?" and you answer, that's technically a punishable violation. So please don't discuss the exam with other students until Tuesday.
    • For more details on self scheduled exams, see here.
  • The exam is cumulative, i.e. it covers all of the material that we've covered this term. It will have a slight focus on the material that we've covered since the second midterm, so perhaps about 45% of it will be on things that we've done since the second midterm.
  • The exam is two and a half hours. That's over double the length of our midterms. I tried to write a final that is about 1.5 times as long as the midterms, so you should find that you have more time per question. There are 13 questions (none of which is multiple choice) in the exam, worth a total of 70 points.
  • No calculators. Don't bring one, because they will not allow you to take it to your desk. All of the math on the exam is simple. If you ever end up with a fraction that you're too lazy to simplify, just leave it: if you write 1800/9 instead of 200, that's fine (you won't lose any points). No notes or cheatsheets -- you will only be allowed to bring pens and pencils into the room.
  • If you think a question is unclear and unanswerable without further information, assume something that you believe makes it answerable (but hopefully not trivial). State your assumption clearly. Obviously, I do my best to make everything as clear as possible to avoid you having to do this.
  • Solutions to the exam will be posted on Tuesday. I will put your raw exam grades on Moodle also, and add a file to the course website (like I did for the midterms) to help you contextualize your performance. If you want your graded exam back, email Sara Nielsen.