Economics 110 -Principles of Microeconomics
Fall 2008 Kuwait University
Instructor: Dr. Anwar Al-Shriaan
Office: Economics department
E-mail: alshriaan@cba.edu.kw
Office hours: Monday and Wednesday 10:00 – 10:50 am
Or by appointment.
Course website:
Lecture:
Monday –Wednesday , 11:00- 12:15 pm
Teaching Assistants:
Required Text: • McConnell and Brue“ Economics“, 16th ed. Also, the best
strategy for doing well in class and understanding the material is to read the corresponding
textbook chapters before class.
Grading
Your course grade will consist of two midterm examinations, a final, and your recitation
grade.
Your grade will be determined as follows:
Midterm 1 25%
Midterm 2 25%
Recitation 10%
Participations 10%
Final 30%
Letter grades will be assigned as follows:
93.00 – 100.0 % … A
90.00 – 92.99 % … A88.00 – 89.99 % … B+
83.00 – 87.99 % … B
80.00 – 82.99 % … B78.00 – 79.99 % … C+
73.00 – 77.99 % … C
70.00 – 72.99 % … C66.00 – 69.99 % … D+
60.00 – 65.99 % … D
59.99 – 0.00 % … F
Recitation:
What happens in recitation is up to your recitation instructor. Your TA will go over how you will
be evaluated in recitation. Recitation is a good opportunity to go over questions you have and
discuss the more challenging concepts. Attending recitation is required and expected.
Exam Preparation/Textbook Website:
In order to help prepare for exams and solidify concepts from class, a number of
resources are available.
1) Before each exam, I will provide a exam problem set that will closely resemble
the exam in terms of material and types of questions.
2) textbook Microeconomics has a number of online problems and a review of
different concepts that are helpful. The website is
- Objectives
Principles of microeconomics is an introductory course in economic theory. It is designed
to introduce undergraduate students
to the fundamental concepts of microeconomic analysis, i.e., the study of the economic
behavior of individual economic decision-making
units such as the consumer and the business firm. By the end of the course, students
should demonstrate an understanding of the tools
of microeconomic analysis. Specifically, this course provides students with general
background and analytical tools pertaining to:
1. The definition of economics, economic problem, economic systems,
opportunity cost and production possibilities frontier.
2. The concept of demand and supply, the demand and demand curves,
factors affecting the demand and supply as well as
market demand and supply.
3. Market equilibrium and factors affecting it, as well as government
intervention.
4. Elasticity of both demand and supply, factors affecting it and price
elasticity of demand and total revenue.
5. The concept and measures of utility, the law of diminishing marginal
utility and utility maximization.
6. Production functions in the short and long run, and the law of diminishing
returns.
7. Costs of production in the short and long run and economies of scale.
8. Monopolistic markets and profit maximization under monopoly.
9. Oligopoly and monopolistic competition markets and profit maximization
under these two market structures.
10. Factor markets and factor price determination.
- Course Outline:
Introduction to Economics and the Economy (Ch 1 and 2)
·
The economic perspective
·
Why we study economics
·
Economic methodology
·
The economizing problem
·
Employment and efficiency
·
Unemployment, growth and the future
· The circular flow model
·
·
·
·
Individual Markets: Demand and Supply (Ch 3)
Markets
Demand
Supply
Supply and demand: market equilibrium
Chapter 18. Extensions of Demand and Supply Analysis

Price elasticity of demand

Price elasticity of supply

Consumer and producer surplus
Chapter 19. Consumer behavior and utility maximization

Law of Diminishing marginal utility

Theory of consumer behavior

Utility maximization and the demand curve

Applications and extensions
The Costs of Production (Ch 20)
·
Economic costs
· Short term production relationships
· Short term production costs
·
Long term production costs
Pure competition (Ch 21)
·
Four market models
·
Pure competition: characteristics and occurrence
·
Demand as seem by a purely competitive seller
·
Profit maximization in the short run
·
Marginal costs and short run supply
·
Profit maximization in the long run
·
Pure competition and efficiency
Pure Monopoly (Ch 22)
·
An introduction to pure monopoly
·
Barriers to entry
·
Monopoly demand
·
Output and price determination
·
Economic effects of monopoly
·
Price discrimination
·
Regulated monopoly
Monopolistic Competition and Oligopoly (Ch 23)
· Monopolistic competition
· Price and output in monopolistic competition
· Monopolistic competition and efficiency
·
·
Product variety
Oligopoly
Factor markets (Ch 26- 28)
·
Labor market and wage determination
·
Capital and natural resource markets
Government and market failure (Ch 28)
Tentative Course Outline
These are the expected topics covered for each midterm (subject to change):
Course Topics (We will roughly cover a topic every class and since exams dates are
fixed, they will only cover topics we have finished)
The following is a tentative time plan for the presentation of the course outline
Time
Topics
1st week
1 – Introduction
2nd – 3rd week
The Demand and supply
4th week
Equilibrium
5th week
Elasticity
6th – 7th week
Consumer behavior
1st mid term
th
8 week
Production
9th – 10th week
Costs of production
11th – 12th week
Perfect competition
13th – 14th week
Monopoly, oligopoly and monopolistic competition
2nd mid term
th
15 week
Factor markets
**** Final exam (comprehensive) ****
- GENERAL INFORMATION
-
Absenteeism: university regulations governing absenteeism are applied to all students.
This involves a first warning after 3 hours, a second warning after additional 3 hours
absence and a failure notice for any absence beyond the six hours. It should be noted,
however, that students may lose marks as a result of absenteeism
-
Tardiness: students are expected to be in the lecture hall on time. Students showing signs
of tardiness shall be warned for the first time and subsequently barred from the lecture.
-
Make up policy: students who are unable to attend an exam due to illness or other
extenuating circumstances (appropriate documents are required to verify the indicated
circumstances) may request a make-up exam.
-
Plagiarism and cheating are strictly prohibited by university policies as well as academic
ethics.
-
This course heavily uses Internet as a teaching aid. Students should be equipped with
basic skills of WWW Internet search and electronic mail system. Those who want to receive
Internet assignments and answers by e-mail should register their e-mail address in my home
page