Economics 352: Intermediate Microeconomics On-Line Version Spring 2009

Transcription

1 Economics 352: Intermediate Microeconomics On-Line Version Spring 2009 "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest." -- Adam Smith Instructor: Office: Office Hours: Messages: Textbooks: Grading: Allen S. Bellas, Ph.D. Management Education Center In Minneapolis Monday 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. and Wednesday 10:00 a.m. 6:00 p.m. At Normandale CC Monday 5:00 p.m. 6:00 p.m. And by appointment My address is: allen.bellas@metrostate.edu. is the best way to contact me. Phone numbers are (office) (fax). Please call my office to notify me of an incoming fax. Please include my name on all faxes you send. Microeconomic Theory: Basic Principles and Extensions by Walter Nicholson, 9 th Edition. Textbook can be ordered from or the bookstore ( ) Grades will be based on the accumulated score from the chapter quizzes over the semester and a final exam. Additional points may be earned through completion of Aplia exercises. Course Description This is an intermediate course in microeconomic theory and introduces a student already familiar with principles of microeconomics to more sophisticated and advanced techniques in analysis of consumer and firm decisions, issues in market structure and market failure, game theory, uncertainty and risk and issues in information. While one goal of this course is to prepare the student for upper division undergraduate study, it is also the study of microeconomics for its own sake. Real world applications will not be the focus of this course, but they will be provided when appropriate and applicable in hopes that students might gain some understanding of how relatively abstract theory may be applied to real world issues. Prerequisites: Principles of microeconomics and calculus. If you have not had calculus you should not take this class. Course Objectives This course will acquaint students with microeconomic theory as it is most commonly viewed by practicing economists. The specific topics covered will include theories of consumer choice, theory of production and costs, the study of firm behavior within specific types of markets and several types of market failure. The treatment in this course will be more rigorous and mathematical than the student has seen before and combinations of mathematical and graphical presentations will be used. In the end, the student should have a greater knowledge and appreciation of the assumptions underlying microeconomics and should understand the importance of these assumptions.

2 Student Responsibilities Students have the following responsibilities in this course: Read the indicated chapters from the textbook Read the associated lecture notes Register at the Aplia web site and complete the Aplia exercises Participate in each week s discussion Log into the course D2L site at least twice per week Take the quiz for each chapter prior to the deadline for that quiz In addition, it is strongly recommended that you take the practice quiz for each chapter prior to taking the graded quiz and that you contact me with any questions about the material from the practice quiz specifically or from the chapter in general. Learning Techniques This course will offer several different approaches to the material. There will be a textbook and accompanying lecture notes, written by the instructor to enhance and further explain the material in the textbook. Students are asked to post comments on each chapter and discuss what they found most interesting and challenging through a discussion application found within D2L. There will be interactive exercises offered through the Aplia web site (econ.aplia.com) which, though not graded, must be completed. There will be a practice quiz for each chapter. Finally, there will be a graded quiz for each chapter that will be similar to the practice quiz for that chapter. Quizzes will include questions that test knowledge of the course material in several different ways and assess learning at several different levels. The grade in this class will be based on the overall percentage of quiz questions that are correctly answered. The Aplia exercises are intended to help you gain familiarity with the material before taking the quiz. The discussions for each chapter are intended to help you raise issues, concerns, questions and interesting points about each chapter and to learn from the experiences of others. Grades Grading will be based on the total percentage of graded quiz and exam questions answered correctly over the course of the semester, plus extra points awarded for completing each week s Aplia assignments. The grading scale will be as follows: >90% A 87%-90% A- 84%-87% B+ 80%-84% B 77%-80% B- 74%-77% C+ 70%-74% C 67%-70% C- 64%-67% D+ In addition, it is expected that each student will make at least one discussion group posting for each chapter describing concepts or questions that they found either most interesting or most challenging to the relevant chapter s discussion board within the 2

3 course s D2L site. This will be useful as it will allow the instructor to efficiently provide feedback and guidance regarding the course material and to provide additional examples and illustrations to the entire class as necessary. Please use the class discussion areas for non-personal issues and use individual-to-individual s to communicate personal issues. At all times follow proper netiquette and levels of respect for your fellow class members. Finally, it is expected that students complete the Aplia exercises relevant to each chapter before taking the associated quiz. This should improve your performance on the quizzes and students will receive one extra quiz points for each Aplia exercise completed. I believe there are 35 Aplia exercises. Students requesting accommodations for disabilities must register with the Office for Disabilities and Special Services ( ) as early as possible. If you have a documented learning disability, or if you suspect you have a learning disability which may impact your opportunity to succeed in this course, call the Office for Disabilities and Special Services right away so that you can explore possible ways to reasonably accommodate your learning style. The instructor will respond to students s and discussion board postings (when appropriate) within two working days. Quizzes should be graded and returned within two days of the submission deadline. Students are responsible for their own conduct. Students are expected to cite sources for all reference materials and to work with the Metropolitan State University Library to secure copyright permissions for all content used in their actual courses. As part of academic honesty, students are expected to respect intellectual property laws, including copyright law. No parts of this site, your textbook, other publisher materials, or contributions from other class members can be used or distributed outside of this class without the permission of the author(s). Copyright law provides that any creative thought fixed into a tangible form is copyrighted the moment it is created, whether or not a copyright notice is affixed. 3

4 Deadlines/Rules 1) Quizzes will be completed and submitted through the course s D2L dropbox by the time and date indicated in this syllabus. 2) Aplia exercises will be completed by the time indicated. 3) Extra credit assignments other than those associated with Aplia and described above are not offered. 4) Incompletes must be arranged with me prior to the last day of class and will conform to official university policy. A grade of incomplete may be considered if the person requesting has successfully completed at least half of the course and is a student in good standing in the course. Good standing means the requester is earning a passing grade (C- or better) and has attended class regularly. I reserve the right to refuse a request for an incomplete. 5) The last day to drop this class and request a refund is January 18, ) The last day to withdraw from this class is April 12, Quizzes The practice quizzes and graded quizzes will be available on-line through the instructor s web site at You should take the practice quiz for each chapter, check your answers, and then download and complete the graded quiz for the chapter and post it through the D2L dropbox before the deadline of 11:59 PM on Saturday evening. There is no time limit on the quizzes and you may use any resource you choose in answering the questions, but you may not consult with any other person, either in person, by post, , telephone or any other method of communication, about the questions. The one exception is that you may ask the instructor questions about the quizzes. In answering the quizzes, which will consist of multiple choice questions, clearly indicate which answer you are giving for each question and give only one answer for each question. If you think that a question is unclear or you think that none of the options is correct, please include in the text of your quiz a sentence or two describing the ambiguity or other problem and your discussion may be considered in the grading of your quiz. Submit your quiz through the D2L dropbox by the deadline. Missing a quiz or a deadline will severely impact your grade. Missing a quiz or a deadline will severely impact your grade, so stay ahead of schedule. Final Exam The final exam for this course will consist of three questions, taken verbatim or nearly verbatim, from each of the chapter quizzes or chapter practice quizzes. This final exam should be taken sometime in the last two weeks of the semester at one of the Metropolitan State University testing centers. 4

5 Class Schedule There will be a quiz associated with each chapter covered. The deadline for submitting each quiz is 11:59 P.M. on the Saturday whose date is indicated below. For example, the quizzes on chapters 1 and 2 must be submitted by the end of the second week of class. 9 th Edition Schedule Week Topic Readings 1 Introduction and Mathematics Chap 1 Chap 2, pp , Utility Theory Chapters 3, 4 Quizzes 1 and 2 due 1/24 3 Income and Substitution Effects Chapter 5 Quizzes 3 and 4 due 1/31 4 Income and Substitution Effects, continued Chapter 5 5 Demand Relationships Chapter 6, pp Quiz 5 due 2/14 6 Production Functions and Cost Functions Chapters 7, 8 Quiz 6 due 2/21 7 Profit Maximization and Competition Chapters 9, 10 8 Applied Competitive Analysis Quizzes 7 and 8 due 3/7 9 Monopoly Quiz 9 due 3/21 10 Imperfect Competition Quizzes 10 and 11 due 3/28 11 Game Theory Quiz 13 due 4/4 12 Uncertainty, Risk Aversion and Information Quizzes 14 and 15 due 4/11 13 Externalities and Public Goods Quizzes 18 and 19 due 4/18 14 Quiz 20 due 4/25 Chapter 11 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapters 18, 19 Chapter 20 5

6 10 th Edition Schedule Week Topic Readings 1 Introduction and Mathematics Chapters 1, 2 2 Utility Theory Chapters 3, 4 Quizzes 1 and 2 due 1/24 3 Income and Substitution Effects Chapter 5 Quizzes 3 and 4 due 1/31 4 Income and Substitution Effects, continued Chapter 5 5 Demand Relationships Chapter 6 Quiz 5 due 2/14 6 Production Functions and Cost Functions Chapters 9, 10 Quiz 6 due 2/21 7 Profit Maximization and Competition Chapter 11 8 Applied Competitive Analysis Quizzes 9 and 10 due 3/ 7 9 Monopoly Quiz 11 due 3/21 10 Imperfect Competition Quiz 12 due 3/28 11 Game Theory Quiz 14 due 4/4 12 Uncertainty, Risk Aversion and Information Quiz 8+15 due 4/11 13 Externalities and Public Goods Quizzes 7 and 18 due 4/18 14 Quiz 19 due 4/25 Chapter 12 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 8 Chapters 7, 18 Chapter 19 Aplia Exercises The Aplia web site is econ.aplia.com and this is where you will find the online exercises to accompany the course material. In the first few days of the semester, you should go to the Aplia web site and register for the course. There will be a registration fee of $35 The course key is L3QE-V5LD-7GY8. For each Aplia exercise that you complete (I believe there are 35 of them) you will receive one extra credit quiz point. 6

7 Aplia Student Registration and Payment Instructions Course Name: Bellas, Intermediate Microeconomics, Spring 2009 Start Date: 01/12/2009 Professor: Allen Bellas Course Key: L3QE-V5LD-7GY8 You can begin working on your homework as soon as you register! In this course, you will use a textbook and Aplia's website. Registration Registration Instructions 1. Connect to 2. Click the System Configuration Test link below the Sign In and Register sections to make sure you can access all of the features on Aplia's website. This takes just a few seconds and tells you how to update your browser settings if necessary. 3. Return to If you have never used Aplia before, click the New Student button and enter your Course Key: L3QE-V5LD-7GY8. Continue following the instuctions to complete your registration. If you have used Aplia before, sign in with your usual address and password and enter your Course Key when prompted: L3QE-V5LD-7GY8 If you are not prompted for a new Course Key, click the Enter Course Key button to enroll in a new Aplia course. Enter your Course Key when you are prompted. 4. If you understand your payment options, pay now. Otherwise, postpone your purchase decision by choosing the option to pay later. Your payment grace period ends at the end of the day on 02/01/2009. Payment Pay Aplia Directly Purchase access to your course directly from Aplia on our website for $35.00 USD. - The website includes content that has been customized for your textbook and course. 7

8 World Wide Web Economic Resources: Your Textbook Aplia Bureau of Labor Statistics The Economist Magazine On the Issues Iowa Electronic Markets Central Banking Resource Center National Debt Clock US Congress Federal Reserve Board of Governors The Dismal Scientist Other Things to Know about This Course 1) You earn points with your answers. Your score starts at zero and goes up, not at 100% and goes down. 2) You need to pay attention to deadlines and make timely progress with the material of the course. Quizzes may not be taken after the deadlines. 3) Plagiarism is a serious matter that will not be treated lightly. Possible sanctions include warning, course failure or grade change, probation, suspension or expulsion. The following is an excerpt from the Student Handbook ( Plagiarism In simple terms, plagiarism is using another person s words or ideas and presenting them as your own, without acknowledging the original source. This is a very serious offense and is grounds for expulsion. Plagiarism often takes the form of a student copying information from one source and presenting it in a paper or report without the use of footnotes or direct mention of the source in the body of the paper. Naturally, students are expected to read and use a variety of sources when writing a paper, but when the exact words (or words with slight modification) or ideas of others are used, the sources should be properly acknowledged. When instructors read student papers, they want to know which ideas are the student s and which belong to other sources. It is also unacceptable to submit another person s paper or examination as your own. In such cases, instructors may impose sanctions such as a failing grade. If you have questions about the use of footnotes or other notations, talk to your instructor, consult William Coyle s Research Papers, available at the university bookstore or you can seek assistance in the proper way of writing a paper by contacting the Writing Center. 8