KOÇ UNIVERSITY ECON 200: Principles of Economics Spring 2012 Course Syllabus Instructors: Murat Usman Özgür Yılmaz Office : CASE 248 CASE 257 Phone : 338‐1553 338 1627 E‐mail : musman@ku.edu.tr ozyilmaz@ku.edu.tr Office Hours : Thursday 11:00 – 12:00, or by appointment. TBA Course Web Page : http://ais.ku.edu.tr/course/17404/Default.html . Lecture notes, study questions, past exams, etc., and important announcements about the exams will be posted on the web page. Please frequently visit the web site for new information. Course Description : This course examines the basic concepts in economics. The first part covers microeconomics. In this part, we will study how firms decide on production and households decide on consumption of goods and services and how market works. The second part covers macroeconomics. In this part, we will study the economy as a whole. Topics include national income, unemployment, inflation, economic growth, macroeconomics of the open economy. Textbook : Greg Mankiw and Mark Taylor, Economics, Second Edition. Book website : http://cws.cengage.co.uk/mankiw_taylor2/ . There you can find chapter‐by‐chapter guide to the learning objectives, multiple‐choice questions for each chapter, quick short‐answer questions to test your knowledge, and a large set of practice questions with answers. Please use this website. In the past students who have done so have greatly improved their exam performance. Teaching Assistants : Teaching Assistants (TAs) will hold office hours every week to help the students. Time and place of TA office hours will be posted later on the course web page. Teaching Assistants Gökçe Çelik gcelik@ku.edu.tr Nergis Zaim nzaim@ku.edu.tr Tuğba Taşkıran ttaskiran@ku.edu.tr KOLT (Koç Office of Learning & Teaching) Support : We have a number of tutors at KOLT to help you with the course material and exam preparations. This is a valuable resource, please use it. More information will be announced later on the course web page. You can visit KOLT webpage at http://kolt.ku.edu.tr/tr , call them at 338 1468, e‐mail at kolt@ku.edu.tr . Course Requirements : Please make an effort to attend the lectures, and do the study questions. Although these are not graded, doing them will be a great help for the exams. Answers to study questions will be posted on the web page. (1) There will be two midterm exams (each counts as 30 points of your course grade, the first one approximately around Week 6, the second one approximately around Week 11) and a final exam (counts as 40 points of your course grade, during the final exam period). In addition to the exams, there will be a 10 points bonus for class participation. The exact dates of the midterm exams will be posted on the web page. Please note that the exam dates for Econ 200 (or any other large class in the core program) are scheduled by the Registrar’s Office. Once scheduled, the instructors cannot change the dates under any circumstances. (2) All objections to exam grades must be submitted to the instructors in writing within one week after the exam grades have been announced. You will be able to see your exam and discuss it with the instructors. More information on this will be announced in class after grades have been announced. Classroom Code of Conduct : Please follow the Koç University classroom code of conduct, as stated at http://web.ku.edu.tr/ku/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2149&Itemid=3084 . In particular, please turn off laptops and mobile phones during the lectures‐this is not easy but you can do it, and avoid behavior like always coming to class late; keeping steady conversation with neighbors during lecture, etc. Make‐up Exam Policy : If you miss an exam (midterm or final) and have a valid excuse, for each exam you missed, you will be given a make‐up exam on one of the official final make‐up exam days, scheduled by the Registrar’s Office. Academic Honesty “Honesty and trust are important to all of us as individuals. Students and faculty adhere to the following principles of academic honesty at Koç University: 1. Individual accountability for all individual work, written or oral. Copying from others or providing answers or information, written or oral, to others is cheating. 2. Providing proper acknowledgement of original author. Copying from another student’s paper or from another text without written acknowledgement is plagiarism. 3. Authorized Teamwork. Unauthorized help from another person or having someone else write one’s paper or assignment is collusion. Cheating, plagiarism, and collusion are serious offenses resulting in an F grade and disciplinary action.” COURSE OUTLINE PART 1 Introduction Chapter 1 Ten Principles of Economics Chapter 2 Thinking Like an Economist Chapter 3 Interdependence and the Gains From Trade Supply and Demand I: How Markets Work Chapter 4 The Market Forces of Supply and Demand Chapter 5 Elasticity and its Application Chapter 6 Supply, Demand and Government Policies Supply and Demand II: Markets and Welfare Chapter 7 Consumers, Producers and the Efficiency of Competitive Markets Chapter 8‐9 Applications: The Costs of Taxation, International Trade Firm Behavior and the Organization of Industry Chapter 13 The Costs of Production Chapter 14 Firms in Competitive Markets Chapter 15 Monopoly PART 2 The Data of Macroeconomics Chapter 23 Measuring a Nation’s Income Chapter 24 Measuring the Cost of Living The Real Economy in the Long Run Chapter 25 Production and Growth Chapter 26 Saving, Investment and the Financial System Chapter 28 Unemployment Money and Prices in the Long Run Chapter 29 The Monetary System Chapter 30 Money Growth and Inflation The Macroeconomics of Open Economies Chapter 31 Open‐Economy Macroeconomics: Basic Concepts Chapter 32 A Macroeconomic Theory of the Open Economy