ECONOMICS 212 – SECTION B
MICROECONOMIC THEORY
WINTER, 2009
Instructor:
Office:
Email:
Phone:
Office Hours:
Lanny Zrill
Dunning Hall, Room 345
zrilll@econ.queensu.ca
613-533- 6000, ext. 75525
TBA
Textbook and Other Resources
The textbook for the course is Microeconomics by David Besanko and Ronald Brauetigam. This
book and the accompanying study guide are available in the bookstore. You may find additional
resources at the publisher’s website, www.wiley.com/college/besanko. Other materials may be
referenced as we proceed through the course.
Grading
Student grades will be based on three sets of work:
1) A three-hour final exam worth 50% to be scheduled by the Exams Office during the April
exam period.
2) A midterm exam worth 30% to be held in class on Monday, March 2.
3) A set of five open-book quizzes to be held during the last 25 minutes of class, beginning
on Monday, January 19. A full schedule of the quizzes is included below. Your four
highest quiz scores will count for 20% of your grade. Missed quizzes will not be made
up for any reason. If you have a legitimate and documented reason for missing a quiz,
please speak to me about alternative arrangements.
Please note that all graded work, with the exception of the final exam, will be returned through an
office set up for this purpose. You must show your student card to pick up your work. Details
will follow in class.
Exam and Quiz Schedule
Quiz 1
January 19
Quiz 2
February 2
Quiz 3
February 23
Midterm
March 2
Quiz 4
March 9
Quiz 5
March 23
Other Stuff
The course has a head TA who is responsible for coordinating grading activities and office hours
for other TAs, and maintaining the course website. Ryan Webb assumes this role and can be
found in Dunning Hall, Room 346. The remaining four TAs are responsible for grading quizzes
and the midterm. All TAs will hold regular office hours to respond to grading inquiries. These
office hours plus information about the tutorial will be posted on the website early in the term.
The website address is http://qed.econ.queensu.ca/pub/undergrad/212.html. The website contains
important announcements, and past quizzes and midterms.
Course Outline and Readings
Chapter 1 – entire chapter
 Students are responsible for reading this chapter
Chapter 2 – pages 22-55
 Covers the basics of supply and demand and elasticity
Chapter 3 – entire chapter
 Preferences and utility, the basis of consumer theory
Chapter 4 – pages 96-123
 Consumer choice through constrained optimization problems
Chapter 5 – pages 134-158 and pages 172-175
 Derivation of demand functions and consumption-leisure choice problems
Chapter 15 – pages 550-569
 Consumer choice in the presence of risk and an introduction to insurance
Chapter 6 – entire chapter
 Production functions
Chapter 7 – pages 221-243 and pages 246-252
 Costs and cost minimization
Chapter 8 – pages 259-283
 Cost curves in the long run and the short run
 Covered very quickly in class with most of the chapter for student reading
Chapter 9 – pages 298-335
 Perfectly competitive markets
Chapter 10 – entire chapter
 Applications of competitive markets to policy issues
 A few sample problems will be done in class, but the chapter is mostly left for student
reading
Chapter 11 – pages 403-413 and pages 422-427
 Basics of monopoly
Chapter 13 – pages 481-498
 Basics of oligopoly
Chapter 14 – entire chapter
 Introduction to game theory