Eco11, Fall 2009
Simon Board
Economics 11: Microeconomic Theory
Professor Simon Board
Fall 2009
1. Class Information
Website: http://www.econ.ucla.edu/sboard/teaching/econ11_09/econ11_09.html
Lectures: Tuesday and Thursday, 9:30–10:45am in Broad 2160E
Office Hours: Tuesday 11-12am in Bunche 2249, and Wednesday 11-12am in Bunche 2160.
2. Contact Information
Office: 9353 Bunche Hall
Email: sboard@econ.ucla.edu
Phone: 310-825-5304
Remarks: In general, your first point of contact should be your TA. For enrollment questions,
please talk to the economics counsellor (ug-counselor@econ.ucla.edu). Otherwise, when contacting me by email, please indicate ”Econ 11” in the subject line.
3. Course Description and Requirements
The intent of this course is to provide a rigourous presentation of microeconomics, the branch
of economics dealing with behaviour of individual decision makers such as consumers and firms.
The goal of the course is for students to learn to think rigorously on their own about how economic agents make choices and the implications of these choices. Lectures focus on presentation
of analytical tools which form the basis for such thinking. Problem sets provide students with
practice applying these tools. Students will be evaluated on their understanding of these tools
and their ability to apply them to new problems. It is important to remember that this is a
course on economic methodology, not on policy. A lot of what you learn here will be applied
later in other economics and business courses you will take. For economics majors, this course
is likely to be the most important one you will take.
Prerequisites: Economics 1 and 2, one course from Mathematics 31B, 31BH, 31E, 32A.
Econ 11 has been designated as an impacted course. This means that you can only decide to
drop the course during the first two weeks.
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4. Textbook and Course Material
The textbook for this course is “Microeconomic Theory: Basic Principles and Extensions”,
by Walter Nicholson and Christopher Snyder (10th ed). I am happy for people to use earlier
editions or the international edition, which may be substantially cheaper, but cannot guarantee
that the material will be identical. There are 3 copies of the 10th edition on 2-hour reserve at
College Library (HB172.N49.2008).
There are other very good microeconomics textbooks. Perloff’s “Microeconomics: Theory
and Applications, with Calculus” is at the same level as the class. Varian’s “Intermediate
Microeconomics” and Nicholson’s “Intermediate Microeconomics” are both slightly easier.
5. Course Requirements
Students are expected to attend lectures as well as weekly discussion sessions with a teaching
assistant. We will follow the text as much as we can. However, not all material in the chapters of
the text we cover will be presented in lectures. Problem sets will be assigned approximately once
per week and will be graded, primarily for completeness. Late homework will not be accepted
for any reason, although each student’s lowest homework grade will be dropped. Problem sets
are designed to enable students to become proficient using the concepts and analytical methods
presented in the lectures and readings. Students may collaborate on problem sets, although
each must submit her/his own answers in her/his own words. Work on the problem sets! While
these account for only 10% of the final grade, they provide excellent practice for the exams.
Students who do not work these problems should expect to do poorly on the exams.
6. Discussion Sections
Each student is assigned to a weekly discussion section with a teaching assistant. All teaching
assistants for this course are Ph.D. students in economics. Discussion sections will usually focus
on the problem set assigned the previous week. TAs will often review material covered in the
lectures that week and will sometimes present new material. If you have a question, you can
bring it up in the session.
7. Exams
There will be two midterms held during regular class periods and one cumulative final exam, all
of which are closed book. Midterm exams will be given in class on October 27 and November
17. These are the only times these exams will be offered; i.e. there are no makeup midterms (see
Grading below). A cumulative final exam will be given on Tuesday December 8, 8-11 a.m. This
schedule cannot be changed, and alternative exam times will not be offered, so please resolve
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any conflicts now! Practice exams are provided on the web site and give a good indication of
the style and level of questions likely to be on the exams you will be given. Exams require
students to solve new problems using the analytical tools developed in class. They are intended
to be challenging!
8. Grading
The exam scores will be graded to comparable 100-point scales. Homework will count 10% of
the final grade. One of two different rules will be used to determine the remaining 90%.
1. For students whose final exam score is below the scores on each of the two midterms, each
exam will count 30%.
2. For all other students, the final exam will count 50% and the higher of the two midterms
will count 40% (i.e., the lower midterm score is dropped). For any student missing one
of the midterms for any reason, the latter calculation will be used with the one midterm
taken counting 40%.
This grading scheme is designed to (1) give students an opportunity to improve their grades if
they do poorly on the first midterm, (2) ensure that a consistent and fair policy is applied in
the unusual case that a student must miss a midterm, and (3) avoid heavy weight on a single
poor exam performance.
9. Questions About Grading
We try very hard to grade fairly and consistently. Mistakes in grading are unusual but sometimes
do occur. When they do, we want to correct them. Questions about grading should be directed
first to your TA. Most questions are resolved easily in this way. If the first attempt to resolve
the question with your TA fails, send me a typed explanation (by email is fine), explaining the
grading disagreement and the outcome of the discussion with the TA. Students should not be
discouraged from pursuing questions about their grades. This policy is intended only to protect
the impartiality of the grading process.
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10. Approximate Lecture Plan
The schedule of topics covered in lectures will approximate the schedule below. Corresponding
chapters in the text are listed. Students should read these chapters before each lecture.
Lecture
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
-
Date (day/month)
R 24/09
T 29/09
R 1/10
T 6/10
R 8/10
T 13/10
R 15/10
T 20/10
R 22/10
T 27/10
R 29/10
T 3/11
R 5/11
T 10/11
R 12/11
T 17/11
R 19/11
T 24/11
R 26/11
T 1/12
R 3/12
T 8/12
Subject
Introduction and Mathematics of Optimisation
Preferences and Utility
Indifference Curves
Utility Maximisation Problem
Comparative Statics
Expenditure Minimisation Problem
Substitution and Income Effects
Substitutes and Complements
Endowments of goods
First Midterm
Production functions
Cost minimisation problem
Profit maximisation problem
Supply functions
Partial equilibrium
Second Midterm
Welfare Theorems and Applications
General equilibrium and Edgeworth box
Thanksgiving
Competitive equilibrium
Competitive equilibrium with Production
Final
4
Chapter
1,2
3
3
4
5
4
5
6
Notes
9
10
11
11
12
12
13
13
13
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