Economics 80B
INTERMEDIATE MICROECONOMICS
Fall 2016
Instructor: Nader Habibi
Class Meeting Times: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 5:00 to 6:30
Class location: Pollack Art Center, room 001
Recitation (optional) : M 6:30 PM–8:20 PM , Golding Judaica Center, 101
Office location: Crown Center (Lemberg Building), room 226 (This building is near Usdan and the Castle ).
Phone: (781) 736-5325;
Email:
Office hours: (Tuesdays 1:30 to 3pm) , (Thursdays 11 to 11:50am) other times by appointment.
Class TA: Amira Abouhussein
Email:
TA office hours:
Monday: 4:30 to 5:30 pm(fixed )
Wednesday: 10:30 to 11:30 am ( fixed till the middle of October)
Location: Main Library.
Learning goals: To introduce students to the methods of microeconomic analysis and familiarize them with the many applications of these methods for analyzing important economic issues. The course focuses on the study of consumer and producer behavior and analyzes their interactions in a free enterprise market system.
Course Description:
In this course we study the economic decision making process of individuals and institutions in an economic system that respects private property rights and uses market mechanism to allocate economic resources. In the first half of the course, we will study how various individuals and firms make economic decisions. We also look at how these micro decisions affect the allocation of economic resources in the society. Then we will study various market imperfections and their consequences for the welfare of economic agents. We will cover several important applications of microeconomic theory in taxation, trade regulation and public policy although the coverage will depend on time availability. This intermediate course is intended to equip you with the analytical tools that are needed for the upper level economic courses.
Pre-requisites: Econ 10a or Econ 28b (formerly Econ 8b). Students must earn C- or higher in MATH 10a, or the equivalent, to enroll in this course.
Textbooks: Microeconomics by Robert Pindyck and Daniel Rubinfeld, 7th or 8th edition.
Several online resources for this textbook (and its older editions) are available online. You are also encouraged to read periodicals such as The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, or The Economist on a regular basis. Recent issues are available online for Brandeis students; older material is available through the Brandeis Library website (lts.brandeis.edu/research/articles/index.html). Every issue of these publications includes several examples of microeconomic forces at work.
Studying in small groups is highly recommended for this course. While each individual is fully responsible for his/her homework sets I encourage you to study and work on homework sets in small groups of two or three.
Course Requirements and Grading Policy: Your grade for this class will depend on: Attendance, take home assignments, quizzes, and a final exam. The exams will be closed book and closed note. Grading will be as follows:
1. Homework assignments (15% of total grade)— Students are responsible for three homework sets over the course of the semester. These homework sets provide you with the opportunity to work through the concepts presented in the lectures and readings.
All homework assignments will be graded and recorded. Completed assignments are due in class on the assigned dates. Email submissions will not be accepted.
2. Two Quizzes (20% each). We will have two quizzes in 5th, and 10th weeks of lecture. The quizzes will be 40 minutes long. They will include concept explanation and quantitative problems.
3. Final exam (40% of total grade)—The final exam date (TBA). The exam will be based on the assigned readings, lecture notes, problem sets, and practice questions.
4. Attendance and Class Participation (5% of total grade)
5. Attendance is mandatory. You can miss two sessions without any excuse and two additional sessions with a legitimate emergency excuse (such as a medical emergency). Missing more sessions will have an adverse effect on your grade and if you are absent more than five sessions without an excuse you I will report you to the registrars office and you might have to drop the class. If you need to skip a session email me as soon as possible.
If you have a time conflict with any of the exams, please let me know ASAP.
MAKE-UP EXAMS
Quizzes: In the event of an excused absence from a quiz, student can take a make-up quiz.
Final: University policy does not allow final exams to be given in advance of the published exam time. The make-up for an excused absence from the scheduled final exam will be administered by the Registrar, either on the “conflict resolution” day or after classes resume in January.
For a planned absence from the final (one that does not entail an emergency), the student seeking an excused absence must request an "excused absence from a final exam" in advance through the Office of Undergraduate Academic Affairs.
DISABILITY
If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis University and wish to have a reasonable accommodation made for you in this class, please see me immediately.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
You are expected to be familiar with and to follow the University’s policies on academic integrity (see http://www.brandeis.edu/studentlife/sdc/ai/). Instances of alleged dishonesty will be forwarded to the Office of Campus Life for possible referral to the Student Judicial System. Potential sanctions include failure in the course and suspension from the University.
Cell phones: Turn off your cell phone during lecture hours. No texting or surfing the net.
Laptops: Lecture notes in Microeconomics include mathematical formulas and diagrams, which cannot be recorded if you are using your laptop to take notes. Your laptop should remain closed once class begins. If you have a physical or learning disability that requires use of a laptop, please provide documentation by the second class session.
Reading assignments: Prepare for each lecture by reading the assigned material in advance. A good strategy is to read quickly through the assigned material before the lecture and then read carefully after the lecture. This allows you to take lecture notes efficiently without duplicating text material.
Econ 80 Intermediate Microeconomics (Course Outline)Topic 1 / Introduction to the course. An overview of microeconomics approach.
Chapter 1
Topic 2 / Supply and demand. Market mechanism, demand and supply curves, market equilibrium, elasticity of supply and demand, market conditions. impact of price control
Chapter 2
Topic 3 / Consumer behavior. Consumer preferences and indifference curves, Marginal Rate of Substitution, budget constraint, consumer choice.
Chapter 3,
Topic 4 / Individual and market demand. Derivation of individual demand, income and substitution effects, market demand, consumer surplus, network externalities.
Chapter 4
Topic 5 / Production theory. Production function, Law of diminishing marginal return, Production with two inputs. Profit maximization. Returns to scale.
Chapter 6
Quiz 1 (30 minutes) Covers topics 1, 2, 3, and 4
Topic 6 / Cost of Production. Different types of production costs: fixed, variable, and sunk costs, total average, and marginal cost in the short run and long run, opportunity cost, cost minimization problem, economies of scale.
Chapter 7 ,
Topic 7 / Profit Maximization and Competitive Markets. Profit maximization. Short-run and long-run supply curves for a competitive firm and industry, Constant-cost Industries, Increasing-cost industries, Decreasing-cost industries. Elasticity of supply. Consumer surplus, producer surplus, welfare effects of taxes, minimum prices and tariffs.
Chapter 8, Chapter 9
Topic 8 / Monopoly. Sources of monopoly. The monopolist problem. Price discrimination. Public policy toward natural monopoly. Applications: Price discrimination, Two-part tariff, Bundling. Chapter 10, Parts of Chapter 11.
Topic 9 / Monopolistic Competition and Oligopoly: Two types of imperfect competition. Introduction to Cournot-Nash model. First mover advantage—Stackelberg model. Price Competition, Bertrand Model, Cartels, Auctions. Chapter 12.
Quiz 2: (40 minutes) Covers topics 5,6,7, 8
Topic 10 / Game Theory: Nash Equilibrium, MaxMin strategy, Sequential Games, Repeated Games , applications in analysis of Oligopoly markets. Chapter 13.
Topic 11 / Markets with Asymmetric Information: Adverse selection, moral hazards, principal agent problems, Quality uncertainty in used car markets, market signaling. Chapter 17.
Topic 12 / Externalities and public goods. Negative and positive externalities, market failure, public goods,
Chapter 18
Review and Study Day (TBA)
Final Exam (Comprehensive) TBA