SYLLABUS: Microeconomics
Instructor:
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Office hours:
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Class hours:
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COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course introduces the economic way of thinking as it provides the basic
principles of microeconomics. It is the study of choices made by households,
firms, and government and how these choices impact the market economy.
MAJOR INSTRUCTIONAL AREAS
1.
2.
3.
4.
Economic systems and the allocation of scarce resources
Demand and household decision-making
Business firms and production decisions
The role of government in the economy
COURSE OBJECTIVES
After successful completion of this course, the student will have the opportunity
to:
1. Describe the study of economics and differentiate between
microeconomics and macroeconomics.
2. Describe the concepts underlying scarcity and tradeoffs.
3. Describe supply and demand, evaluate how non-price determinants impact
supply and demand, and analyze the impact of government-imposed price
and quantity controls on supply, demand, and market price.
4. Examine the role of government in the economy, and assess the impact of
taxes on producers and consumers.
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5. Identify the factors associated with consumer choice and analyze how
consumer choice affects supply, demand, and market price.
6. Explain, graphically illustrate, and calculate demand and supply elasticity.
7. Describe the financial environment of business in terms of organization,
profit, interest, and corporate financing methods.
8. Identify and apply the theories and formulas used by firms to determine
cost and output.
9. Compare a perfectly competitive market structure with a monopolistic
competitive market structure in terms of number of sellers, entry and exit,
price, profit, output, and product differentiation.
10. Compare a monopoly market structure with an oligopoly market structure
in terms of number of sellers, entry and exit, price, profit, output, and
product differentiation.
11. Describe the impact of regulation and antitrust policy in a global economy.
12. Describe the labor market and graphically illustrate demand and supply as
it relates to labor resources.
13. Explore income distribution in the U.S., and discuss its impact on
individual income, poverty, and health care.
14. Identify environmental economic issues related to firms.
15. State the worldwide importance of international trade for individuals and
firms and list measures that nations take to monitor and control it.
16. Using the tools of supply and demand, explain how exchange rates are
determined and how they affect trade.
Related SCANS Objectives
1. Locates, understands, and interprets written information in prose and in
documents such as manuals, graphs, and schedules.
2. Creates documents such as letters, directions, manuals, reports, and
graphs.
3. Generates new ideas.
4. Recognizes problems and devises and implements plan of action.
5. Uses efficient learning techniques to acquire and apply new knowledge
and skills.
6. Discovers a rule or principle underlying the relationships between two or
more objects and applies it when solving a problem.
7. Acquires, evaluates, organizes, maintains, interprets, and communicates
information.
8. Uses computers to process information.
9. Knows how social, organizational, and technological systems work and
operates effectively with them. (Team)
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TEACHING STRATEGIES
The curriculum is designed to promote a variety of teaching strategies that support the
outcomes described in the course objectives and that foster higher cognitive skills.
Delivery makes use of MyEconLab.
COURSE RESOURCES
Student Textbook Package
„
Miller, Roger LeRoy. Economics Today: The Micro View, 13th ed. Boston:
Addison Wesley, 2006.
„
MyEconLab.
References and Resources
ITT Tech Virtual Library
Login to the ITT Tech Virtual Library (http://library.itt-tech.edu/) to access online
books, journals, and other reference resources selected to support ITT Tech
curricula.
„ General References
> Reference Resources> Economics
> Program Links> General Education> Link Library> GE 273
Microeconomics
> Program Links> General Education> Textbook Support> Economics Today:
Micro View by Miller
> Program Links> General Education> Recommended Links> Economics
•
Books
For additional information, check the following listed books available in
the ITT Tech Virtual Library> Books> Ebrary
Adams, Walter, and James W. Brock. Bigness Complex: Industry, Labor,
and Government in the American Economy. Stanford, CA: Stanford
University Press, 2004.
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Axelrod, Alan. Ace Your Midterms & Finals: Principles of Economics.
NY: McGraw-Hill Professional Book Group, 1999.
Beller, Ken, Louis Patler, and Steve M. Weiss. Consistent Consumer:
Predicting Future Behavior Through Lasting Values. Chicago: Dearborn
Trade, A Kaplan Professional Company, 2005.
Cohen, Solomon. Microeconomic Policy. NY: Routledge, 2000.
Davis, John Bryan. Social Economics of Health Care. NY: Routledge,
2001.
Donahue, John D., and Joseph S. Nye. Market-Based Governance: Supply
Side, Demand Side, Upside, and Downside. Washington, DC: Brookings
Institution Press, 2001.
Emerald Insight Staff. Power and Supply Chain Relationships. West
Yorkshire, United Kingdom: Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2004.
Hoover, William E., Jr., Eero Eloranta, Jan Holmstrom, and Kati
Huttunen. Value Innovations for Customer Satisfaction. NY: John Wiley
& Sons, 2001.
Karoly, Lynn A., and Constantijn Panis. Twenty-first Century at Work:
Forces Shaping the Future Workforce and Workplace in the United States.
Santa Monica, CA: The Rand Corporation, 2004.
Kash, Richard. New Law of Demand and Supply. NY: Doubleday, 2002.
Kock, Ned. Business Process Improvement Through E-Collaboration:
Knowledge Sharing Through the Use of Virtual Groups. Hershey, PA:
Idea Group Publishing, 2005.
McMeekin, Andrew, Ken Green, and Mark Tomlinson. Innovation by
Demand: An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Study of Demand and Its
Role in Innovation. Manchester, United Kingdom: Manchester University
Press, 2002.
Salanie, Bernard. Microeconomics of Market Failures. Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press, 2000.
Sautet, Frederic. Entrepreneurial Theory of the Firm. NY:Routledge,
2000.
Shone, Ronald. Introduction to Economic Dynamics. NY: Cambridge
University Press, 2001.
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World Bank. Economic Growth in the 1990s: Learning from a Decade of
Reform. NY: World Bank Publications, 2005.
Periodicals
ƒ
Periodicals> EbscoHost
>Black Enterprise
Business magazine for black professionals, business people,
college students, and corporate executives.
>Business Review
Feature articles and thematic issues dealing with virtually all
areas within economics and finance published by the Federal
Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
>Business Week Online
Reports on news, ideas, and trends affecting industry and the
economy for those in business management, with national and
international coverage.
>Economic Indicators
Published for each member of Congress, the Joint Economic
Committee, and relevant libraries; statistics on total output,
income and spending, employment, unemployment and wages,
production and business activity, prices, money, federal finance,
and more.
>Economic Perspectives
Articles, review articles, and commentary on a wide variety of
economic ideas and perspectives.
>Economic Review
Presents articles and essays with a focus on economic and
financial theory.
>Forbes
For corporate officers and other major executives in business
interested in developing management insight through review of
the nation's largest corporations.
>Fortune
Gives top executives, and those working to reach senior
positions in business, information on the economic, political, and
social trends that affect the environment of business.
>Wall Street Journal, Eastern Edition
A daily Monday through Friday newspaper providing news and
financial information for executives and managers on Wall
Street, at corporations, and at businesses and for individual
investors worldwide. All articles on section front pages covered.
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