Economics
251 - Microeconomics
SUMMER
SESSION 2 - 2004
Purdue
North Central Campus, Section 1, Mondays and Wednesdays
Instructor: Dr. Derek
Bjonback
Office: Room 191,
email: dbjonback@pnc.edu
Textbooks: Schiller, The Micro
Economy Today 9th Edition
Wilson & Anderson, Study Guide to Accompany Schillers Text
Course
Overview: The course provides and introduction
to the field of microeconomics, the study of the behavior of consumers and
households, business, labor and government.
The
theories of microeconomics explain and predict the behavior of households and
the business sector in terms of the supply of labor, products, and services;
and the demand for products and services, and for the factors
of production respectively. These
theories also enable the development of tools and understanding of market
impacts that government has in addressing market failures such as pollution and
market power. Microeconomics provides a framework to interpret and explain the
behavior of these actors, and estimate consequences of their actions, in
response to market forces, and government regulatory action.
After
completion of the course, the student will have an enhanced ability to understand
the behavior of markets, the role of government in regulating market behavior
in the public interest, the meaning of microeconomic data, events, and
commentary in the media. This will serve
the student to be better able to conduct personal affairs, manage a business,
and participate in public affairs.
Course Goal: How to define microeconomic problems, develop and
evaluate alternative models and implement a solution. Understand how prices of
individual goods, services and resources are determined.
Course Objectives:
A. Determine the basic economic
problem (scarcity, opportunity cost, and economic efficiency)
B. Employ analytical tools to
understand the market and the price mechanism (demand and supply analysis,
price elasticity, marginal utility and marginal rate of substitution)
C.
Analyze costs, revenue, profit maximization and market structure
(marginal analysis, fixed cost, competition, monopolistic competition,
oligopoly and monopoly, and short run VS long run)
D. Examine market failures, externalities, government intervention, income distribution and regulation (public goods, externalities and inefficiencies of over and under regulation)
Course
conduct: The course will follow a lecture format,
with opportunity to discuss late-breaking business and economic news within the
context of concepts introduced in class.
Attendance at lectures is essential as both the text and lectures work
together to provide meaning to the themes developed during the course. Attendance and participation in class
discussion will be noted and will be 5% of the overall course grade.
Students
will be evaluated on the basis of the following:
Six Quizzes 60%
Final Exam 25%
Two short essays 10%
Participation/Attendance 5%
Total 100%
Essay
topics will be provided about 9 days prior to the due date, and will cover text
and lecture principles covered to date.
Essays are to be a minimum of two and a maximum of three pages in
length, double-spaced. To answer the
essay topics, you may use text and lecture material, and research material from
the library or internet (with references), as desired.
There
will be six quizzes during the course, which will consist of a combination of
multiple choice and short answer questions.
Quizzes will be conducted for the first 45 minutes of the class
period. A student can miss up to two
quizzes with no penalty, as the scores for the lowest two quizzes will be
dropped when calculating the average quiz grade.
The
final exam will be two hours in length, and will take place during final exam
week. It will be comprehensive over the
entire course, but will be more heavily weighted towards the material covered
since the last quiz. The final will
consist of 80 multiple choice questions.
Course Grades: 90% and above A 60%
to 69% D
80% to 89% B Less than 60% F
70% to 79% C
Class
Schedule and Exams
Dates Chapters covered, exams,
quizzes, and other milestones
Monday, June 7 Chapter
1 – Economics: The Core Issue
Chapter 2 – The
Wednesday, June 9 Chapter
3 – Supply and Demand
Monday,
June 14 Essay #1 Topics Distributed
Quiz #1 – Chapters 1 to 3
Chapter
5 – The Demand for Goods
Wednesday, June 16 Chapter 5 – The Demand for Goods,
appendix
Chapter
21 – The Costs of Production
Monday,
June 21 Quiz #2 –
Chapter 5, Chapter 5 appendix, Chapter 21
Chapter
22– The Competitive Firm
Wednesday,
June 23 Essay #1 Due date
Chapter 22 – The Competitive Firm
Chapter
23 – Competitive Markets
Monday,
June 28 Quiz #3 –
Chapters 22 and 23
Chapter
24 - Monopoly
Wednesday, June 30 Chapter 25 – Oligopoly
Chapter 26 –
Monopolistic Competition
Wednesday, July 7 Quiz #4 – Chapters 24 to
26.
Chapter 4 – The
Public Sector
Monday,
July 12 Essay #2 Topics Distributed
Chapter
27 – (De) Regulation of Business
Chapter 28 –
Environmental Protection
Wednesday, July 14 Quiz
#5 – Chapters 4, 27, and 28.
Chapter
30
Monday,
July 19 Chapter 31
– Labor Unions
Chapter
32 – Financial Markets
Wednesday,
July 21 Essay #2 Due date
Quiz #6 – Chapters 30-32.
Chapter
33 – Taxes: Equity vs. Efficiency
Monday,
July 26 Chapter 34
– Transfer Payments: Welfare and Social Security
Review
Wednesday, July 28 FINAL EXAM, two hours,
(comprehensive)