King Abdul Aziz University
College of Business
Department of Finance
Course of Study Outline
FINA251
Fundamentals of Microeconomics
Semester 1, 2015-16
Version date (1 July, 2016)
Course of Study Outline
Course of study code
FINA251
Course of study name
Fundamentals of Microeconomics
Teaching Term/Semester & Year
Semester 1, 2015-16
Contact Hours (hrs/wk) or total contact
hours
Duration: 2 teaching days over 15 weeks
Credit Points
3.000
Contact hours: 45 hours
Teaching Staff
Name
Role
Dr.
Mazharul
Islam
Lecturer
Room
No.
7.214
Phone No.
0568543711
Email Address
malislam@kau.edu.sa
mazharulislam@yahoo.com
Consultation
Times
Section
Monday &
Wednesday
(8.00am to
9.20am)
Aims
The economic way of thinking is an essential skill for competitive advantage. This unit
focuses on the concepts to how economic agents (e.g. consumers, producers, factorowners) maximizing objectives (e.g. utility, profits, rent) in an environment of economic
constraints (e.g. income, costs, time) in order to motivate students to learn, understand,
utilize, communicate, and thinking in economic way appropriately.
Learning Objectives
After successfully completing this unit, you should be able to:
 Familiarize with economic methodology
 Develop the economic way of thinking
 Understand economizing problems
 Understand the policy alternatives
 Apply the economic perspective and reason accurately and objectively about
economic matters.
 Understand how economic agents make their allocation decisions
 Understand how these decisions interact, and result in a social outcome through
interact in the market and influences of government
Specific generic skills that will be incorporated in this unit include developing analytical and
problem solving skills, skills and attitudes conducive to lifelong learning.
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Content
•
What is Economics?
•
The Economic Problem
•
Demand and Supply
•
Elasticity
•
Utility and Demand
•
Output and Costs
•
Perfect Competition
•
Monopoly (if time covers)
Learning and Teaching Structure
Teaching method: Lectures, Class exercise
Students are expected to read lecture slides and complete homework before coming to
class.
In a Semester, you should normally expect to spend, on average, 6 hours of total time
(formal contact time plus independent study time) a week on a 3 credit point unit of study.
Resources and Reference Material
1. Parkin, M. Microeconomics, 11th edition, available at University Book Store or can
buy online from amazon.com. Also 10th Edition can be used.
2. Students will need to have a Calculator
3. PowerPoint slides for each lecture, Test Bank, Solutions, and the Unit Outline will
be available in my (http://marz.kau.edu.sa/admin/AdminFiles.aspx)
4.
Material on the URL is updated several times each week. Students are required to
check the site frequently to ensure that they have up-to-date information.
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Date
Week
Lecture
Contents
Reading
Assessment
Topic
- Definition of Economics
1
- Micro versus Macro economics
24 & 26
August.
2015
What is
Economics? - The questions economic
address
- Factor of production
Chap-1 (Parkin,
Microeconomics,
11th edition)
Lecture note for
week 1.
Class
attendance
and
participation
- Self-interest and Social interest
2
The
August & Economic
2nd Sept. Problem
2015
31st
-Define production possibilities
frontier (PPF).
-Calculate the opportunity cost
-Production efficiency
-Economic growth
Chap-2 (Parkin,
Microeconomics,
11th edition)
Lecture note for
week 2.
Class
attendance
and
participation
-Define Demand
3
-Law of demand
7&9
(Sept.
2015)
Demand
-Demand curve and demand
schedule
-A change of quantity demanded
versus change in demand
Chap-3 (Parkin, .
Microeconomics,
11th edition)
Lecture note for
week 3.
Class
attendance
and
participation
-Define Supply
4
14 & 16
(Sept.
2015)
-Law of supply
Supply
-Supply curve and supply
schedule
-A change of quantity supplied
versus change in supply
Chap-3 (Parkin, .
Microeconomics,
11th edition)
Quiz-1
Lecture note for
week 4.
-Define market equilibrium
5
5&7
Market
(October equilibrium
2015)
-determine equilibrium price and
quantity
-Price adjustment
-Predicting changes in price and
quantity
-Define elasticity
6
12 & 14
-Price elasticity of demand
(October Elasticity
2015)
-Calculating price elasticity of
demand
-elastic and inelastic demand
Chap-3 (Parkin, .
Microeconomics,
11th edition)
Lecture note for
week 5.
Chap-4 (Parkin,
Microeconomics,
11th edition)
Lecture note for
week 6.
Class
attendance
and
participation
Class
attendance
and
participation
Page 4 of 7
- Total revenue and elasticity
7
19 & 21
(October Elasticity
2015)
- The factors that influences the
elasticity of demand
Chap-4 (Parkin,
Microeconomics,
11th edition)
- The factors that influences the
elasticity of supply
Lecture note for
week 7.
8
26 & 28
The
(October Consumer
behaviour
2015)
9
2&4
(Nov.
2015)
The
Consumer
behaviour
- Utility Analysis
- Total and marginal utility
(Nov.
2015)
The firm
behaviour
- Output and cost
- Decision time frames (short run
technology constraint)
11
16 & 18
(Nov.
2015)
The firm
behaviour
- Output and cost
- Decision time frames (short run
cost)
- Define perfect competition
12
23 & 25
(Nov.
2015)
- How perfect competition arises
The perfect
competition
-Price takers
- Economic profit and revenues
– the firm decisions
13
30th
Nov. &
2nd Dec.
(2015)
Chap-8 (Parkin,
Microeconomics, Class
attendance
11th edition)
and
Lecture note for participation
week 8.
Chap-8 (Parkin,
- Consumer’s equilibrium by using Microeconomics, Class
attendance
marginal utility analysis
11th edition)
and
- Derivation of demand curve
Lecture note for participation
week 9.
10
9 & 11
Mid-term
Exam
Chap-11 (Parkin,
Microeconomics,
11th edition)
Quiz-2
Lecture note for
week 10.
Chap-11 (Parkin,
Microeconomics, Class
attendance
11th edition)
and
Lecture note for participation
week 11.
Chap-12 (Parkin,
Microeconomics, Class
attendance
11th edition)
and
Lecture note for participation
week 12.
- The firm output decision: total
revenue, total cost, and economic Chap-12 (Parkin,
profit
Microeconomics, Class
The perfect –Marginal analysis and the supply 11th edition)
attendance
competition decision
and
Lecture note for participation
- Temporary shutdown decision
week 13.
- The firm supply curve.
14 7 & 9
(Dec.
2015)
Revision
Class
All relevant chapters that will
cover in the final exam
Homework Submission
Final Exam (Date will be informed later)
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Assessment
a. Assessment Task Details:
Assessment Task
Individual/ Weighting
Group
Task
Class participation
Individual
10%
Quizzes
Individual
15%
2nd exam
Individual
25%
Homework
Group
10%
Final exam
Individual
40%
In order to successfully complete this unit, students must achieve

at least 60% of the marks allocated to the all assessment tasks.
Course Requirements & Policies
You are expected to fulfil the following requirements of the course to obtain a grade:

Participation/Attendance
Attendance for face-to-face class is compulsory. Any student not attending a class
should provide a medical certificate or a written justification (signed by a parent or
guardian in the case of a full-time student). Students are required to participate actively
in class discussion, exercises and other class activities. Students are expected to read
the topics before coming to class to facilitate their understanding of the subjects and in
the discussion.

Class Assignments/Homework
Each student is required to submit written assignment/homework of selected cases.
These assignments must be done as a group. Assignments must be submitted on the
specified date. If you perform poorly on an assignment, I will give you the opportunity
to redo the work for a better grade (with a lower maximum).
For any assignments/homework given, the format of the paper should be as follows:
 A cover page with your details – Name, Student ID and Sections
 Font Arial, size 11 with 1.5 spacing
 Include a reference page (if needed) for every assignment/homework that you
submitted.
Quizzes must be taken on the specified date. If you encounter any problem to take the
quizzes on the specific date, you are required to sit for quiz within the next five days.
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Final Result Categories
Symbol %
A+
95-100
A
B+
B
C+
C
D+
D
90-94
85-89
80-84
75-79
70-74
65-69
60-64
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