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Syllabus

Economics 103 – Fall 2007

Principles of Microeconomics

INSTRUCTOR: Wayne Carroll

OFFICE: Schneider 471

E-MAIL: carrolwd

PHONE: 8363388

OFFICE HOURS: 2:00 - 3:00 MW, 11:00 – 12:00 TuTh, and other times when I’m in the office.

This course will provide an introduction to the standard concepts of microeconomics and show how the “economic way of thinking” can improve your understanding of a wide range of problems in the social sciences.

Lectures Since most of the material in this course will be presented in the lectures, it is essential that you attend class regularly. While class attendance is not taken into account directly in the determination of your course grade, it is likely to be reflected in your performance on exams. If you miss a lecture, you should obtain that day's notes from someone else in class, and then ask me about any remaining questions you have.

Readings The text for this course is Principles of Economics by Mankiw. You can buy an optional Study Guide in the bookstore. The course outline lists reading assignments from the text.

Grading Your grade in this course will be based on your performance on three exams during the semester, a comprehensive final exam, and several short assignments and quizzes. Each of the four exams will carry an equal weight in your grade, and all the short assignments and quizzes together probably will count about as much as one exam. Tentative dates for the exams are:

First exam 5 October

Second exam 2 November

Third exam 7 December

Final exam 17 December at 10:00 (9:00 section)

18 December at 10:00 (10:00 section)

Makeup exams You may take a makeup exam if you contact me before the regularly scheduled exam is given. Makeup exams will typically be harder than the regularly scheduled exams. Late homework assignments must be turned in no later than the beginning of the second class after they are assigned.


Relationship of this course to the goals of the University’s Baccalaureate program – The following are the goals of UWEC’s undergraduate program.

The baccalaureate experience shall develop for students an:

·  understanding of a liberal education.

·  appreciation of the University as a learning community.

·  ability to inquire, think, analyze.

·  ability to write, read, speak, listen.

·  understanding of numerical data.

·  historical consciousness.

·  international and intercultural experience.

·  understanding of science and the scientific methods.

·  appreciation of the arts.

·  understanding of values.

·  understanding of human behavior and human institutions.

Keep these goals in mind during the semester. We will try to address them whenever possible during the course.

Any student who has a disability and is in need of classroom accommodation should contact the instructor and theServices for Students with Disabilities Office in Old Library 2136 at the beginning of the semester.
Tentative Schedule of Topics

All readings listed below are from Mankiw. Each reading assignment listed in the schedule is to be completed before the next class meeting.

5 September /

Introduction

Reading assignment: Chaps. 1, 2
7 September /

Ten Principles of Economics

Reading assignment: Chap. 3
10 September / Interdependence and the Gains from Trade
·  Production possibilities
12 September / ·  Opportunity cost and comparative advantage

Reading Assignment: Chap. 4

14 September
(last day to drop is 17 September) / Supply and Demand
·  Demand
17 September / ·  Supply
·  Market Equilibrium
19 September / ·  Applications
·  The role of markets in society
21 September / ·  More applications of supply and demand curves

Reading assignment: Chap. 5

24 September /

Elasticity

·  Demand elasticity
·  Supply elasticity
26 September / ·  Applications of elasticities

Reading assignment: Chap. 6

28 September / Price Controls:

·  Price ceilings

1 October / ·  Price floors
3 October / Review
5 October /

Exam #1

Reading assignment: Chap. 7

8 October / Market Efficiency:
·  Consumer surplus
·  Producer surplus
10 October / ·  Market efficiency
·  Market failure

Reading assignment: Chap. 8

12 October / Welfare Effects of Taxation:
·  Effects of taxes
15 October / ·  Taxes, deadweight losses, and the gains from trade
·  Deadweight losses and public policy
Reading assignment: Chap. 10
17 October / Externalities:
·  The economics of pollution
19 October / ·  Pollution solutions

Reading assignment: Chap. 11

22 October / Public Goods and Common Resources:

·  Public goods

24 October / ·  Common resources

Reading assignment: Chap. 13

26 October / Costs of Production:
·  Production and costs
·  Fixed costs vs. variable costs
·  Total, average, and marginal costs
29 October / Costs in the Short Run: Diminishing Returns
31 October / Costs in the Long Run: Returns to Scale
2 November /

Exam #2

Reading assignment: Chap. 14

5 November /

Competition

·  The competitive firm: price takers vs. price searchers
·  Competitive profit maximization: MC=P
·  The competitive firm’s supply curve
7 November /

·  Measuring economic profit

·  Economic profit vs. accounting profit

9 November /

·  Applications of the short-run competitive market model

12 November
(last day to drop with a W) / Competition in the Long Run
·  Market entry and exit in the long run

·  Long-run market supply

14 November / Applications of the long-run competitive market model
Reading assignment: Chap. 15
16 November / Monopoly:
·  Price searchers and market power
·  Marginal revenue

·  Profit maximization for a monopoly: MC=MR

19 November / Applications of the monopoly model
21 November / Welfare implications and regulation of monopoly
23 November / Thanksgiving Break
26 November / Price discrimination

Reading assignment: Chap. 16

28 November /

Oligopoly

·  The prisoners’ dilemma
30 November / ·  Cartels
3 December / Summing Up: How Do Markets Work?
5 December / Review
7 December /

Exam #3

Reading assignment: Chaps. 18, 19, 20
10 December / Pass back Exam #3

Labor Markets

·  Demand for labor
12 December / ·  Supply of labor
·  Labor market equilibrium
14 December / Earnings and Discrimination
·  Why wages differ
·  Discrimination
17 December / Final Exam at 10:00 a.m. (in the usual room) for the 9:00 section (Section 003)
18 December / Final Exam at 10:00 a.m. (in the usual room) for the 10:00 section (Section 006)