Econ 1101: Principles of
Microeconomics (Fall 2010)
Class Syllabus
|
Lecture (Click below for
recitation, office hour, and contact information) |
Meeting Time |
Instructor |
|
MWF 9:05-9:55 |
Thomas J. Holmes |
|
|
MWF 10:10-11:00 |
Thomas J. Holmes |
|
|
Tues 5:15-7:45 |
John Winstandley |
|
|
Wed 5:10-7:45 |
Marina Mendes Tavares |
|
|
MW 4:00-5:15 |
Bolormaa Jamiyansuren |
|
|
Thur 5:30-8:00 |
Andrew Triece |
|
|
MW 4:00-5:15 |
Minesh Amin |
|
|
TTh 4:00-5:15 |
Jan Duras |
|
|
MWF 8:00-8:50 |
Andrea Waddle |
Aplia
All students are required to
register with Aplia. Click here for instructions
for how to do this.
Economics and a Liberal Arts Education
A liberal arts education
provides a student with general skills.
These skills are not only valuable for a student’s career but also
enhance a student’s ability to understand the world and make contributions to
society. The later includes the capacity
of being a well-informed citizen who can understand the arguments of the great
policy debates of our time.
Knowledge of economics is
essential for those who will work in business or policy spheres, and helps in
other careers like law and journalism.
Beyond delivering career skills, the study of economics contributes to a
strong foundation of a liberal arts education.
Economics develops a set of tools that students can use to satisfy their
curiosity about social phenomena that have big impacts in their lives,
including changes in living standards, inequality, and globalization. Economics teaches a logical way of thinking
and analysis that has broad applicability for understanding social phenomena
beyond commerce, such as issues in political science and sociology. Finally, many of the great policy debates of
our time are intrinsically economic debates.
Through study of economics, students can better understand the important
issues at stake.
The approach of economics is
to build rigorous, fully-articulated models of the interaction of social agents
(like firms or consumers), where the incentives underlying the behavior of the
agents are explicitly specified.
Typically, the agents in these models are assumed to behave
rationally. That is, the agents weigh
the cost and benefits of various alternatives and pick the best one in their
interest. Economists use the models both
to understand how the economy works and to analyze the impacts of changes in
policy.
In this course, we develop
the basic economic theory of firms and consumers and their interactions in
markets. From these primitives, we
derive supply and demand and solve for the competitive equilibrium allocation of
the free market. We define notions of
efficiency and prove one of the central results in economics, the “First
Welfare Theorem.” This result is that—under
certain conditions—the free-market allocation is efficient (where efficiency is
defined in a precise way). Put another
way, under certain conditions the market maximizes the “size of the social
pie.” Next we consider the effects of government policies and determine how
these policies impact both the size of the pie and its distributed across
individuals in the economy. Next we
introduce the concepts of externalities and monopoly and show how these
situations lead the first welfare theorem to break down. That is, the market allocation no longer
maximizes the pie.
We develop all of these
concepts in an example economy called “Econland’’ that trades in
“widgets.’’ This is a simple economy
that is rigorously defined. We keep coming back to Econland throughout the
semester and map it into various policy applications. For example, in one application, one actor in
Econland is China, another, the United States, and widgets correspond to carbon
credits traded in a global emissions exchange.
By being careful and rigorous about the way the incentives of all agents
are explicitly specified, the course highlights the essence of the analytical
approach of economics, and distinguishes its place among the broader social
sciences.
Empirical work in economics
starts from a foundation of explicit models, and aims to test theories and
estimate parameters so the models can be used to quantitatively evaluate the
impacts of policies. The course exposes
students to the practice of empirical work in economics. The course includes assignments where students
manipulate economic data in a manner that: (a) enables the students to derive
interesting and useful results on important economic issues and (b) at the same
time highlights the limitations of the primitive analysis, and explains the
directions that can be taken with the help of more advanced techniques taught
in upper-level classes and graduate programs.
While there are exceptions, economics is mainly not a laboratory
science. Rather, economic data is mainly
created by a social process beyond the researcher’s control. This presents challenges that will be
discussed in some of the homework exercises.
There is some research in
experimental economics and the class will introduce students to this subfield
of economics. In particular, the class
will participate in several experimental auctions and the data generated by the
experiment will be discussed in class.
Global Perspectives
The centerpiece of the class
will be to address the following three global issues:
Global Issue 1: Global
Externalities: Climate Change
How do we address
externalities that operate at the global level? Specifically, what should be done about carbon
emissions and climate change? Do we use
market-based methods, like taxes or tradable allowances, as recommended by
economists? Do we allow rich countries
to buy pollution rights from poor countries?
Should the United States tax gasoline like European countries do? Can game theory help us understand conflicts
between China and the United States and other countries more generally about
global agreements?
Global Issue 2:
International Trade and its Impacts
Globalization has led to
dramatic increases in trade between countries.
How has globalization changed the overall size of the global pie, the
division of the pie across nations, and the division of the pie among different
groups within a country? More specifically,
what has been the impact of the bilateral trade relationship between China and
the United States on both countries? How
has it impacted workers in both countries?
Global Issue 3: Intellectual
Property Protection in the Global Economy
What should the role of
intellectual property protection be in the global economy? Should protection be weakened or
strengthened? More narrowly, what
should intellectual policy protection be in the pharmaceutical industry? Currently, intellectual property laws are
strong in the United States. Drug
companies set extremely high prices in the US market and this market accounts
for a remarkable share of worldwide revenues of most pharmaceutical companies. Intellectual property laws are weak in India,
for example, and India is a source of unlicensed “knock-off” drugs that compete
with branded drugs. Should the United
States pressure India to strengthen its protection? What are the equity considerations of
charging high prices for drugs to poor countries? Should the United States weaken its own
protection or regulate drug pricing? If
the latter, how should research and development for new drugs be funded and, in
particular, how should the bill for this research be divided across countries?
The lectures will be used,
first, to build the foundations (e.g., the development of Econland) under which
it will be possible to undertake the analysis of the three global issues
above. The lectures will be used,
second, to directly cover the three issues.
As a “Global Perspectives” class, lectures will focus on the world
beyond the
In order to promote
opportunities for students to formulate and express opinions, the class will
feature “platform debates” on the global issues. For each of the three issues, there will be a
week in the recitation sections in which students will debate the issues. Each section will be responsible for coming
up with a platform that addresses the policy issue in some way. A platform consists of a specific policy
proposal related to the issue as well as several brief arguments in support of
the proposal. Students in the class will
be free to propose platforms and the Teaching Assistant running the recitation
will write the various proposals on the board.
Students will make cases for the various platforms. The process will be
over when more then half the students in the section vote in favor of a
platform. Students will be encouraged to
discuss the issues online before recitation, at the course Moodle site. A student’s contribution to the discussion
(both in class and online) will be evaluated by the student’s teaching
assistant and this performance will count towards the homework for that
week. (The debate contribution on that
week’s homework will be worth 10 points out of a 100 point scale, with 5
additional bonus points allowed for particularly useful contributions.) The instructors will attempt to consolidate
all the winning platforms of all the different sections in some way and this
will be added to the record at the course web site.
International Contexts of the Economic Issues
We emphasize that as we go
through each of the three centerpiece economic global issues, we will be putting
these issues within the contexts of how specific countries relate to these
issues. For example, in comparing fuel
consumption between Europe and the United States, we will go into the details
of the different tax policies pursued by the different countries and also
provide some of the historical background for these differences. For issue 2 on international trade and its
impacts, we will get into some details about the Chinese economy and its
workforce and compare it with details about advanced economies like the U.S.
and Europe. In the homework, students
will be working with detailed data of what kinds of goods these regions are
trading with each other.
Course Mechanics
While Econ 1101 is offered at
various times and is taught by various instructors, all of the lectures are
under the same common faculty management.
The midterms and final exam are all the same and are taken the same time
by all students. There are two midterms
and these will be given in the evening.
The midterms and final exam are all multiple choice.
There are 11 homework
assignments and these will all be completed through Aplia, a web-based
economics teaching package. Students
will be required to purchase a subscription to Aplia to enroll in the class
because that is how all of the homework will be completed. For instructions on how to enroll in Aplia, click here. At the bookstore, students can purchase a
bundle that includes a hard copy of the textbook as well as an access code for
a subscription to Aplia for $92.25. Note: Do not lose the access code that
comes with the shrink-wrapped bundle.
You will need this access code to enroll in Aplia.
The textbook is:
Mankiw, N. Gregory, Principles of Microeconomics,
5th Edition, 2009. Southwestern Cengage Learning.
In addition to the text,
there are eight additional readings and links to these readings are available
at the course web site.
Several of the homeworks
will require students to manipulate economic data using Microsoft Excel. Many students have their own computers and
their own copies of Excel. The remaining
students can obtain access to Excel by using computer labs on campus.
Prerequisites
Students are expected to
have basic skills in algebra and the ability to work with graphs. Homework Set 1 includes a practice problem
(i.e. it is not graded) for a review of these skills.
Moodle Site
The basic information for
the class, except for the homework at Aplia, will be posted that class Moodle
site, which each registered student can access from moodle.umn.edu. The slides used in the large-lecture sections
will be posted at this site as well as other course materials.
The moodle site will also be
used to conduct interactive forums, where students can post questions about
lecture and can get responses from instructors and other students. In particular, we plan on having a separate
forum for each lecture week of the semester.
We expect that instructors in the class will be able to post responses
to questions two or three times a week.
Please understand that students posting questions might have to wait up
to two days for a response. Also,
instructors generally will not post responses on weekends.
Student Privacy
In this class, our use of
technology through Moodle will sometimes make students' names and U of M
Internet IDs visible within the course website, but only to other students in
the same class. Since we are using a secure, password-protected course website,
this will not increase the risk of identity theft or spamming for anyone in the
class. If you have concerns about the visibility of your Internet ID, then we
recommend that you modify your Profile setting to limit the visibility of this
information. Please see http://umn.edu/moodle/students/guides/profile.html.
When communicating through
online forums, students are expected to maintain the same high standards of
etiquette that would be expected in the classroom. In particular, students should be respectful
of the other course participants, including fellow students as well as
instructors and teaching assistants.
Students should use appropriate language that is not offensive.
Details about Exams, Homeworks, and Grading.
The midterm date and time of
the midterms and final are as follows:
|
Midterm 1 |
Monday evening, October
11, 7:00-8:00 pm |
|
Midterm 2 |
Monday evening, November 15,
7:00-8:00 pm |
|
Final Exam |
Friday evening, December
17, 6:30-8:30 pm |
NOTE the two midterms take
place in the evenings. Room assignments
for exams will in general be different from the regular classroom location and
will be posted at the course web site.
For each midterm, there will
be a makeup exam held at 4:00 pm on the Wednesday following the exam. Students will be eligible to take this exam
if either (1) they cannot take the regularly scheduled midterm because of a
documented illness or (2) they are registered for a class that conflicts with
the midterm time. If a student is unable
to take the regularly scheduled midterm because of either of these two reasons
and if the student is also unable to take the makeup exam, the student’s final
grade will be based on the other midterm, the final, and the homework. A student who is unable to take both midterms
will have to drop the class. (Or take an
incomplete in the class and start all over in a subsequent semester.)
The Final Exam must be taken
at the scheduled time, unless a student has a documented illness or has a
conflict on account of a final exam in a different class at the same time. For
such students, there will be a makeup exam on Wednesday, December 22 from
1:00-3:00. Students who have a conflict need to register for the makeup exam by
noon, Thursday, December 9. To
register, students with a conflict need to email documentation of the conflict
to the head grader at headgrader@gmail.com.
All homework is competed at
Aplia. (In some cases, students will use
Excel to perform calculations needed to do the homework. However, the final
results of these calculations will be submitted through Aplia.) There are eleven homeworks. Homeworks are due Tuesday evenings at 11:45
p.m central time. Late homework will not
be accepted. Students traveling to a
different time zone should take note that the deadline is central time.
Homework Policy Regarding Illness and Special
Circumstances
In a large operation such as
this, it is to be expected that there will be students who become ill or face
some other special circumstances that prevent them from completing a problem
set at the allotted time. To accommodate
students in such situations, the homework grade will use only the nine highest
homework scores. If a student is ill and
cannot submit the homework on time, this homework will be dropped (assuming the
student submits a least nine other homeworks by the end of the semester). Students are encouraged to finish homework before
the last minute of the deadline, in case something unexpected comes up that
prevents them from completing homework at the last minute. In that way, the student can save a “homework
drop” for later use.
We make one exception about
the due date for homework 1 for students who ADD the class in the second week
of the term. Such a student should
contact the HEAD GRADER (headgrader@gmail.com)
and the deadline for completing homework 1 will be extended for that
student. (No other homework besides
homework 1 will have their due dates extended, even to students who add the
class late. A “homework drop” will be
used for any other case.)
How the Weekly Homework Set is Scored
On Aplia, each homework is
broken up into several parts and the points for each part is specified. For each weekly homework, we will take the
Aplia points for that week and rescale it to a 100-point basis. Next, we will add 5 percentage points to each
student’s weekly score, unless doing so raises the score above 100 percent, in
which case the weekly score is capped at 100 percent. So a student getting 95 percent or more of
the homework in a given week gets full credit (100 percent), a student scoring 90
percent gets 95, and so on.
Academic Dishonesty
The test-taking period
begins when a student is handed the question sheet and ends after the student’s
answer sheet has been collected. During
the test-taking period, a student may not speak with any other student, nor use
any communication device or notes. Any
violation of this rule, regardless of the subject matter of the communication,
is considered a form of academic dishonesty, and it will not be tolerated in
this class. See the discussion below on
“Scholastic Dishonesty.”
Course Grade
The overall numerical course
score will be determined as follows.
|
Course Component |
Weight (Percent) |
|
Homework |
20 |
|
Midterm 1 |
22 |
|
Midterm 2 |
22 |
|
Final |
36 |
|
Total |
100 |
An exception to the above weighting
will be made if a student does relatively poorly on Midterm 1 (which will be
the first college multiple choice exam for many of the students in the
class). In this case, Midterm 1 will be
weighted 10%, while Midterm 2 will be worth 27%, and the Final 43% (and
Homework 20%). Each student’s overall
score will be calculated under both weighting schemes and the highest score
under the two weighting schemes will be selected to be the student’s overall
course score.
The numerical course grade will
be converted to a letter grade according to the following scale:
|
92-100 |
A |
|
90-91 |
A- |
|
88-89 |
B+ |
|
82-87 |
B |
|
80-81 |
B- |
|
78-79 |
C+ |
|
72-77 |
C |
|
70-71 |
C- |
|
68-69 |
D+ |
|
60-67 |
D |
|
59 and below |
F |
Who to Contact for Help
Your have questions or need
help regarding course content?
- Talk to your instructor or teaching assistant
during office hours or after class.
- Post a question on the weekly discussion forum.
Questions about grading of
exams or problem sets?
- Contact your teaching assistant.
- If the issue is involves a technical glitch
(e.g. there is a mixup on Aplia), email the Head Grader at headgrader@gmail.com.
You have a conflict with the
midterm or final (or are sick) and need to take the makeup?
- Email the Head Grader at headgrader@gmail.com.
Economics Department Policies
The class will abide by the Economics Department Policy
and Procedures. These are listed
below.
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS --
PROCEDURES AND POLICIES 2009-2010
4-101 Hanson Hall
(612-625-6353)
COURSE PREREQUISITES:
Students are expected to have
successfully completed all prerequisites prior to taking an Economics course.
DISABLED STUDENTS:
Reasonable accommodations
will be provided for all students with documented disabilities (by the OSD).
Contact the instructor at the beginning of the semester to work out details.
This information will be kept confidential.
DROPPING A CLASS:
Termination of attendance
alone is not sufficient to drop a class. You must notify the Registrar’s
office. Please contact your academic (college) adviser for details on this
process and pay attention to University deadlines for add/drop.
INCOMPLETE GRADE:
Low class standing is not a
valid reason for an Incomplete grade. An I is given only in exceptional
circumstances like family emergencies or hospitalization; arrangements must
be worked out between the student and instructor before the final exam.
We require written proof of emergencies. Details about I grades and how to make
it up -in the Economics Undergraduate Handbook.
MAKE-UP EXAMS:
Make up exams are possible for
the final exam only if the student has another exam scheduled at the same time,
or has three exams within a 16 hour period. This should be pre-arranged with
the instructor at least three weeks before the final exam. Make up final exams
may also be possible for documented medical emergencies.
SCHOLASTIC DISHONESTY:
"The College of Liberal
Arts defines scholastic dishonesty broadly as any act by a student that
misrepresents the student's own academic work or that compromises the academic work
of another. Examples include cheating on assignments or exams, plagiarizing
(misrepresenting as one's own anything done by another), unauthorized
collaboration on assignments or exams, or sabotaging another student's
work".
The University Student Conduct
Code defines scholastic dishonesty as “Submission of false records of academic
achievement; cheating on assignments or examinations; plagiarizing; altering,
forging, or misusing a University academic record; taking, acquiring, or using
text materials without faculty permission; acting alone or in cooperation with
another to falsify records or to obtain dishonestly grades, honors, awards, or
professional endorsement.”
Penalties for scholastic
dishonesty of any kind in any course will entail an "F" for the
particular assignment/exam or the course.
Please check this website
for information on Student Academic Misconduct
-- http://www1.umn.edu/oscai/integrity/student/index.html
STUDENT CONDUCT AND
CLASSROOM BEHAVIOR:
Students are expected to
contribute to a calm, productive, and learning environment. Please check this
website for information on student classroom behavior issues: http://www1.umn.edu/regents/policies/academic/Student_Conduct_Code.html
.Check the Student Conduct Code to find out what is expected of
you.
STUDY ABROAD IN
ECONOMICS:
The
Department encourages you to undertake Study Abroad. There are many courses in
foreign countries that can satisfy some economics major, minor, or Liberal
Education requirements. For more information, please contact our Undergraduate
Advisor, Ms. Madhu Bhat, or the University’s Learning Abroad Center at http://www.umabroad.umn.edu/
UNDERGRADUATE ADVISER:
Contact the Undergraduate
Adviser if you wish to sign up for an Economics major or minor or to get
information about institutions of higher study. Your APAS form will list your
progress toward an Economics degree.
Adviser: Ms. Madhu Bhat (
econugra@econ.umn.edu )
Office: 4-100 Hanson Hall (office hours are posted on the door) Phone number: 612-625-5893
UNDERGRADUATE HANDBOOK:
Available
on the Internet at: http://www.econ.umn.edu Click on Undergraduate Programs.
Registration policies are
listed in the University Course Schedules and College Bulletins.
COMPLAINTS OR CONCERNS
ABOUT COURSES:
All course grades are subject to department review.
Please contact your
instructor or TA if you have any complaints/concerns about the course. If your
concerns are not resolved after talking with your instructor, you can
contact: Professor Simran Sahi, Director
of Undergraduate Studies
(Phone): 612-625-6353 and E-mail: ssahi@umn.edu .
STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES
SLO Core Component In
this course, the student will be able to:
|
1. Can identify, define, and solve
problems |
Understand global economic problems involving
externalities, like carbon emissions and intellectual property, and global
issues like the impacts of international trade. Assessment: Students will be
assessed on their understanding of this material on homework and midterms. Solve problems in models of firm and consumer behavior, such as how to
choose prices and outputs and how to behave in strategic environments. Assessment:
Students will be assessed on their understanding of this material on homework
and midterms. |
|
2. Can locate and critically evaluate
information |
Critically evaluate
information by manipulating data. Students will be given raw economic data in
Excel worksheets, like data on gas prices, taxes, and consumption across
countries and will use this information to evaluate implications of economic
theories and draw conclusions about parameter estimates of economic
models. Assessment:
These tasks will be a regular part of homework assignments. Students will report the results of their data
manipulation as part of their homework. |
|
3. Have mastered a body of knowledge
and mode of inquiry |
Know the basic terms, concepts, principles, and
methods, microeconomics. Learn the basic facts about important global issues that serve as an application
of the basic economics principles. Assessment: Students will be
assessed on whether they have mastered this material through homeworks and
exams. |
|
5. Can communicate effectively |
Discuss and Debate important global policy issues, making points
orally in classroom discussions as well as in written form in online forums. Assessment:
There will be three platform debates on three global policy issues and
students will be required to come to recitation sections prepared to propose
and argue for a platform to address each issue. Students will also discuss the issues
online. The teaching assistants
leading the recitation sections will evaluate students on their contribution
to the debate and their performance will enter into their homework grades. |
|
7. Have acquired skills for effective
citizenship and life-long learning |
Learn the key arguments in the policy debates about some
of the great economic issues of our time, including what the role of government
should be in the economy, and possible tradeoffs between efficiency and
equity. In this way, students will become
informed citizens. Assessment:
Students will be assessed on whether they have mastered this material through
homeworks and exams. |