Principles of Microeconomics Instructor: Jonathan Aaron Cook Email: jacook@uci.edu Office Hours: Wednesdays 3:30 to 4:30pm in A 241 (and by appointment) Midterm #1: February 27 Midterm #2: April 9 Final Exam: May 14 (usual class time) Goal of Course Students will gain an understanding of issues that are commonly discussed in political election, including minimum wage and international trade. Students will be able to predict how changes in costs or demand will affect prices. Students will also learn terms commonly used in publications like Time and The Economist, for example “inelastic demand,” “signal,” and “moral hazard.” Aplia and Textbook Aplia Online – homework package, includes electronic version of N. Gregory Mankiw’s Principles of Microeconomics. Grading Homeworks 20% Midterms 25% each Final Exam 30% How to Succeed If you want to succeed in this course you must attend every lecture. Reading the book is not a perfect substitute for attending lectures. You should also spend time doing the Aplia homework assignments. These weekly homeworks are designed to give you a chance to review the material so that you don’t get behind. I also strongly encourage you to attend my office hours. Students who receive a low score on the first midterm will be required to attend my office hours and work on practice problems. The most successful students will read the relevant chapters in the textbook before class. Academic Honor Code Cheating in any form is completely unacceptable. Students are not permitted to talk during exams, use cheat sheets, or use cell phones. The minimum punishment for cheating is failing the assignment and being reported to the university. Cheating in any form will usually result in the student failing the course. More Detailed Course Objectives Students will be able to: 1. Define and explain the fundamental economic problem of scarcity and its consequences – choice, cost, and economizing. 1 2. Use a production possibilities diagram to show and explain the concepts of limits, choice, cost, efficiency, and economic growth. 3. Construct a supply and demand model and use it to explain how prices are determined in markets. 4. Employ supply and demand diagrams to evaluate the consequences of legally imposed prices (ceiling and floor prices). 5. Calculate the elasticity coefficient for supply or demand in a market and interpret the result. 6. Differentiate the alternative definitions of profit, implicit and explicit costs; and use them to calculate profit given the appropriate data. 7. Apply the law of diminishing returns to show, calculate, and explain costs in the short run. 8. Define, explain and evaluate the different market structures. 9. Determine a firm’s profit maximizing (or loss minimizing) quantity and the price given cost and revenue data, for each of the market types. 10. Critically evaluate the efficiency differences between purely competitive industries and monopolies. 2 Outline of Course (This outline is tentative and may change) Week Date Reading Assignment One One Two Two Three Three Four Four Five Five Six Six Seven Seven Eight Eight Nine Nine Ten Ten Eleven Eleven Twelve Twelve Thirteen Thirteen Fourteen Fourteen Fifteen Fifteen Sixteen Sixteen Seventeen Seventeen Eighteen Eighteen Jan 9 Jan 11 Jan 16 Jan 18 Jan 23 Jan 25 Jan 30 Feb 1 Feb 6 Feb 8 Feb 13 Feb 15 Feb 20 Feb 22 Feb 27 Feb 29 March 5 March 7 March 12 March 14 March 19 March 21 March 26 March 28 April 2 April 4 April 9 April 11 April 16 April 18 April 23 April 25 April 30 May 2 May 7 May 9 Introduction, Chapter 1 Chapters 1, 2 Sign up for Aplia Aplia homework No class Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter 3 4 (Supply, Demand) 4 (Equilibrium) 5 6 7 8 8 9 Aplia homework Aplia homework In-class quiz, Aplia homework Aplia homework Aplia homework Aplia homework, Study No class Review study Midterm #1 Introduction to “Utility” Chapter 21 (Preferences, Optimization) Chapter 13 Aplia homework No class No class Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Aplia homework Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Aplia homework Chapter 17 Review Aplia homework, Study Midterm #2 Chapter 10 Aplia homework Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Aplia homework Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Aplia homework Chapter 20 Chapter 22 (Asymmetric Information) Aplia homework Chapter 22 (Asymmetric Information) Review Study Final Exam on May 14 3 How to access your Aplia course Cook,ECON 1- Prin of Micro 6e, Spring 2012 Instructor: Jonathan Aaron Cook Start Date: 01/09/2012 Course Key: QCRQ-THYH-RL8S Registration Aplia is part of CengageBrain, which allows you to sign in to a single site to access your Cengage materials and courses. 1. Connect to http://login.cengagebrain.com/ 2. If you already have an account, sign in. From your Dashboard, enter your course key (QCRQTHYH-RL8S) in the box provided, and click the Register button. If you don't have an account, click the Create a New Account button, and enter your course key when prompted: QCRQ-THYH-RL8S. Continue to follow the on-screen instructions. Payment Online: Purchase access to your course (including the digital textbook) from the CengageBrain website. Bookstore: Purchase access to Aplia from your bookstore. Check with the bookstore to find out what they offer for your course. After paying, you will have the option to purchase a physical book at a discounted price. If you choose to pay later, you can use Aplia without paying until 11:59 PM on 01/29/2012.