Principles of Microeconomics
Economics 12B
TR 9:30-10:45
105 Votey
Professor Woolf
Office: 339 Old
Mill
656-0190
email: awoolf@uvm.edu
website: www.uvm.edu/~awoolf
Office Hours: TR 2:00-3:30
(Note: This is a hyperlinked
syllabus. Anything underlined here is
hyperlinked)
Required
Materials:
1.Timothy Taylor, Microeconomics: Economics and the Economy, Freeload
Press, 2008
This is an on line book. You can either download the chapters at no
cost to you (you do have to register, and there will be some advertisements
with the downloads) or you can order a hard copy from the publisher for
$20. The book is not at the UVM
Store.
2.
Roger Leroy Miller, Daniel Benjamin, Douglass North, The Economics of Public Issues,
Pearson Addison Wesley, 2008
3.
Aplia on line materials.
You must register and pay for Aplia on
line (see the instructions at the end of this syllabus). There will be practice and graded homeworks
that will account for part of your course grade.
The
Course:
How is it that when you go to a bagel
store, there are always enough bagels for you? Why is the price of gasoline so high? Why don’t any of you have Sony Walkmans like
students did 20 years ago? Why can’t
anyone dump a load of garbage on the front lawn of your house, but people can
dump carbon into the atmosphere? Why is
your standard of living better than your parents when they were your age? Or is it?
Why do businesses produce what they do?
Is it good for the economy for firms go out of business and lay off
workers? Why does
Economics, unfortunately, has been known
as the “dismal science.” Far from being
dismal or depressing economics provides us with powerful tools for
understanding the world around us and answering questions like these. If you are interested in these kinds of
questions, then you are interested in economics.
Economics 12 is the second semester of
the two-semester principles of economics sequence. The course is an introduction to
microeconomics, the study of production, pricing, and the working of individual
markets in an economy. It focuses on two
basic actors in any market: firms
(producers) and consumers, and how and why government intervenes in markets and
what the consequences of those interventions are. The course begins with a general discussion
of how markets work, then proceeds to a detailed analysis of the two sides of
the market. We will then put demand and
supply back together and analyze the workings of different types of markets.
This course syllabus is online and many
readings are hyperlinked through it. You
can get to the syllabus through my UVM home page, listed at the top of the
syllabus. It is a good idea to bookmark
it. It will be updated periodically with
current articles that are relevant to the materials we are covering so you
should refer to it on line. In addition,
the on line Aplia links will also have materials for you to read and think
about.
Ancillary
Material:
1. To apply the economic concepts
you are learning, I recommend the following economics reading on line
·
The
New York Times (www.nytimes.com)
including the business section, as well as other economics articles in the
Times. You need to register for the
Times, but it is free.
·
The
Wall Street Journal (www.wsj.com), not free
but well worth the $30 semester subscription price for the paper copy. If you are serious about economics, you
should read the WSJ for good discussion of micro, as well as macro, issues.
2.
If you are serious about learning and truly understanding economics,
read some economics blogs. I guarantee
you that if you read a couple of these blogs each day, you will get a great
exposure to how economists think about the world. Some of my favorites are:
Greg
Mankiw’s Blog Harvard economist who
maintains a website for his principles of economics students and the rest of
the world.
Freakonomics Economist Steven Levitt and journalist
Stephen Dubner. Readable and
interesting.
Vermonttiger A blog I contribute to that looks at
Marginal
Revolution Two economists at
Cafehayek Economics from a libertarian perspective.
Exams
and Grading:
Midterm 1 22.5%
Midterm 2 22.5%
Final Exam 30%
Aplia Quizes 25%
If you cannot make an exam, I will need a
written letter explaining why at least seven days before the exam. If you do miss one of the midterms, your
final exam grade will count for sum of the percentage of the final plus the
midterm that you missed, which means 52.5% of your final grade. My experience is that final exam grades are
generally below the midterm grades for most students.
The Aplia quizzes are on line and you
will be notified when they are available and when they are due, generally
weekly. Any quizzes that are not taken
by the due date and time will not be accepted by the Aplia system. I will drop the two lowest Aplia
quizzes.
Your final grade is based on your
knowledge of the material, not based on how hard you work or how much you
study. My general grading standard is as
follows:
A
Understands the material in a comprehensive manner; understands subtle
distinctions and clearly comprehends the concepts and applications we have
discussed.
B Has a good grasp of the material
covered; generally understands most of the concepts discussed and covered in
class and readings.
C Shows an average comprehension of the
material but cannot explain basic concepts well or apply concepts to slightly
different cases.
D Understands some of the material, but
does not have a grasp of basic concepts or issues we have discussed.
F Does not show an understanding of the
basic material in the course.
Course Schedule:
The following is a timetable for the
course. I expect you to do the readings
before the class period. We will try to
stick to this schedule, but it is subject to change. Please note the dates of the exams. All exams will be in the classroom unless I tell
you otherwise.
Week 1
(1/15-1/17) Introduction
Taylor Ch 1, 2
and appendix (pp. 681-694)
Miller, Ch 1, Death by Bureaucrat
Leonard Reed, I Pencil
Sassa Issenberg,
The
Sushi Economy
Bruce Gottleib, Why Don't Buses Have Seat Belts?
Steven Levitt, Why Do Crack Dealers Still
Live With Their Moms?
Week 2
(1/22-1/24) Trade and Comparative
Advantage
Taylor Ch 3
Miller, Ch
30 Free
Trade, Less Trade, or No Trade?
Week 3
(1/29-1/31) Demand and Supply Basics
Taylor Ch 4
Alan Krueger, Seven Lessons About
Super Bowl Ticket Prices
Miller, Ch 5, Sex, Booze, and Drugs, Ch 6 Expanding Waistlines, Ch 7 Is Water Different?, Ch 10 Bankrupt Landlords, from Sea to Shining Sea,
Week 4 (2/5-2/7) Labor and Capital Markets
Taylor, Ch 5, 19
and appendix (pp 711-714)
Miller, Ch 11
Why are Women Paid Less?, Ch 12, The
Effects of the Minimum Wage
James
Hamilton, Mortgage
Securitization
The Subprime Mess (YouTube)
Week 5
(2/12-2/14) Globalization and
Protectionism
Taylor Ch 6
Miller, Ch 14 A Farewell to Jobs, Ch 31 The $750,000 Steelworker
Paul Krugman, In Praise of Cheap Labor
Hal Varian, An
Ipod has Global Value
Week 6 (2/19-2/21) Elasticity
Exam I 2/19
Taylor Ch 7
Miller, Ch 23 Crime and Punishment
Virginia
Postrel, A
Tale of Two Town Houses
Week 7 (2/26-2/28)
Economics and the Environment
Taylor Ch 14
Miller Ch
25 Heavenly
Highway, Ch 26 The Trashman Cometh, Ch 27 Bye-Bye, Bison, Ch 28 Smog
Merchants, Ch 29 Greenhouse Economics
Robert Frank, A Way to Cut
Fuel Consumption That Everyone Likes, Except the Politicians
Tim
Harford, Frequent
Flier Food
John Tierney, Recycling
is Garbage
Week 8 (3/6) Household
Choices
Taylor Ch 8
Week 9
(3/18-3/20) Firms and Costs
Taylor Ch 9
Week 10
(3/25-3/27)
Competitive
Markets and the Search for Profits
Taylor Ch 10
Week 11
(4/1-4/3) Monopoly
Exam II 4/1
Taylor Ch 11
Week 12 (4/8-4/10)
Imperfect Competition
Taylor Ch 12, 13
Miller, Ch 19 College
Costs (…and Costs and Costs)
Week 13
(4/15-4/17) Government
Taylor Ch 15, 20
Miller, Ch
20 Keeping
the Competition Out
Glen Whitman, Slavery,
Snakes, and Switching: The Role of Incentives in Creating Unintended
Consequences
Russell
Roberts, If You’re
Paying, I’ll Have Top Sirloin.
Alan
Krueger, At FEMA,
Disasters and Politics Go Hand in Hand
Week 14
(4/17-4/22) Poverty and Inequality
Taylor Ch 16
Anna
Bernasek A Poverty
Line That’s Out of Date and Out of Favor
Nicholas
Eberstadt, The
Poverty Rate: America’s Worst
Statistical Indicator
Week 15
(4/24-4/29) TBA
Final Exam Friday May 9, 8:00 am.
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