Syracuse University
Department of Economics
J. David Richardson
Fall 2002-03
601-02.des.doc
Economics 601, Section 003
Survey of Microeconomic Theory
Intermediate Microeconomics
for Master's and Professional Degree Students
Course Description
Brief Description
This is a course in intermediate microeconomics. It is meant to follow an introductory
course in microeconomics, often a course called "Principles of (Micro) Economics."
Microeconomics is the study of decision-making by various types of agents under various
constraints and in various environments. Agents include individuals, of course. But more often,
agents represent social groups -- firms, both profit-seeking and not-for-profits, households, and
governments. Decision-making by agents representing social groups is essentially managerial
economics, the name given to the Public Administration counterpart to this course (PPA 723).
Constraints include time, energy, money, resources, regulation, and information.
Environments include uncertainty, time horizon (the short run, medium runs, and the long run),
“pits and peaks” of the business cycle, and decision-making as a “small” agent and as a large
agent.
Participant Profile
This section (003) of 601 is aimed at Master's-level students in International Relations. It
is also open to Master's-level students in Social Sciences and students in professional programs
such as Law, Information Studies and Technology (IST), and Public Administration (PPA).
Section 002 is also open to such students, but that section will not have the distinctive
international flavor of section 003; M.A. students in Economics should be enrolled in section
002. Ph.D. students in Economics should not take section 003 or 002; they should take section
001 of 601, taught by Professor John Moran.
Two more sections of ECN 601 for M.A. students in International Relations will be
offered again in the Winter-Spring semester, 2002-03, by Economics Professor Vitor Trindade.
Public Administration faculty teach PPA 723, Managerial Economics for Public Administration,
regularly both semesters. Professors Arthur Brooks, John McPeak, and David Popp are teaching
four sections of that course in the Fall, and at least one section will be offered in the WinterSpring. PPA 723 is, however, not an automatically available course to those outside Public
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Administration; please make your appeal, with reasons, to Christine Omolino, the PA Graduate
Director.
Students pursuing joint Masters degrees in International Relations and Public
Administration do not need to take both ECN 601 and PPA 723. Which to take depends on your
objectives and background. Please consult with me or others above about your particular case.
Some Master's Degree students in International Relations, for which this is a required
course, may have taken intermediate microeconomics as an undergraduate. Whether you can be
excused from this course is something I would like to discuss personally with each of you in this
situation. Among other things, I will want to know where you took the course, when you took it,
from whom (instructor's name), what grade you received, and using what textbook. For many of
you, Economics 601 will still be worth taking because of its unique tailoring to International
Relations students. (Various veterans of this class should be contacted as references to testify in
this regard.)
Official auditors are welcome, but must do all assignments and exams. The university
tries to discourage unofficial auditors, and if you choose to sit in anyway and unofficially, I hope
you will understand that I do not want you to take up class time with questions, nor to ask me
subsequently to testify that you sat in on the course.
Longer Description: Content, Style, Philosophy, Purpose
This is a course in intermediate microeconomics -- and more. It is aimed at applying
applied intermediate microeconomics in cross-national settings. By applying I mean that I
will be working to make you feel capable of using intermediate microeconomic methods to make
real decisions or to evaluate those of others. By applied I mean that the economics we will study
will have, as best I can accomplish it, real-world correspondence. By intermediate I mean presupposing one course in economics principles. By cross-national settings, I mean that I will
bend over backwards to translate our text's illustrations into world-wide counterparts, and will try
to develop supplementary case studies of microeconomic decision-making in global affairs that
allow you to apply the microeconomic methods that you are learning.
Because of these specific objectives, the course content will have some distinctive
emphases. We will focus less on the microeconomics of household decision-making than the
normal intermediate microeconomics course, and more on firms – with equal attention to both
“for-profit” firms and not-for-profit firms (including governments). We will describe the
managers of firms as suppliers and demanders in markets for goods, services, labor, capital, and
resources. We will briefly discuss the microeconomics of the way managers represent the
owners of for-profit firms and the official backers/supporters of not-for-profit firms. We will also
emphasize some of the distinctive supplementary chapters of the textbook on information and
uncertainty, on altruism and non-egoism, and on externalities and property rights.
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The course will also have a different style than the normal intermediate economics
course. It will be more case-dependent and more conscious of the need to persuade.... But it will
not be purposely less rigorous. Our text claims to have succeeded in its first five editions at
being simultaneously rigorous and user-friendly. I hope that you find me and the course the same
way.
It is important to say, therefore, in a musical metaphor, that this is not an "economics
appreciation" course; it is a course in performing and composing (doing) economics, and in
adjudicating the day-to-day tryouts among economists. The principal instruments to master will
be logic and analysis, often (but by no means exclusively) channeled through graphs and simple
algebra. Statistics will be rarely used; calculus, never. The tone of these instruments is
technical, but I will not argue that they should take over the orchestra. I do not believe that
everything in creation is orchestrated by economics, nor that the world would harmonize better if
it were. I do believe that economics instruments are under-represented in the world's orchestra,
and often played poorly, so that their popularity among critical audiences is low. We will be
trying to change that.
Finally, economics is more than music. I am convinced that it is an important framework
for describing and interpreting a real and pervasive set of phenomena in every culture and time.
That is why I will always be trying hard to illustrate how this music really matters.
Foundations, Prerequisites, and Remedial Opportunities
The prerequisite for this course is an introductory course in microeconomics -- principles
of (micro)economics ideally. Most one-semester and two-semester undergraduate courses will
satisfy this prerequisite. But those who have had courses at the high-school level only, or
devoted to macroeconomics primarily, or entitled "Survey of Economics" or "General
Economics" may find these inadequate as prerequisites.
In these cases, I recommend that you consider purchasing a principles-level textbook for
background and reference, for example, one of those being used here at Syracuse University for
Economics 101. At Syracuse University, Economics 101 fills the prerequisite ideally,
Economics 203 somewhat less well, and Economics 102, Introductory Macroeconomics, even
less well.
I expect students to be able to read and interpret graphs and tables and to solve simple
algebraic problems. Please do not continue with the course if you are feel yourself unable to
master the assignments in the second week or if you find the assigned material on inter-temporal
choice from our textbook’s Ch. 5 (pp. 168-181) completely incomprehensible.
Remedial Note. During the first four weeks of the class, starting August 27, I will be
holding special “group office hours” as a foundation-building time for those who feel
unprepared. These special office hours will take place Tuesday evening, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
in 112 Eggers Hall. I will meet -- as a group -- those who show up, and we will review relevant
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background material, including algebra and graphics, that you may have forgotten or never
mastered. We will also review and answer questions about current material. There will be a
“group office hour” session the fifth week on Monday, September 23, from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. in
112 Eggers. This one and all that follow are open to all students, not just those who feel
unprepared.
Otherwise, for those who have satisfied the prerequisites for this course, and are, in
principle, prepared: please do not count on using these special evening office hours during the
first four weeks, so that others can catch up (consider coming, for example, during my other
office hours).
After the first four weeks I will continue bi-weekly to make myself available for group
office hours (ensemble remedial and review work) on Tuesday evenings from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
in 112 Eggers Hall. These are open to all students after the first four weeks.
Grading System: Assignments, Exams, Participation.
Grades will be based on 116 points worth of regular assignments, case-study
assignments, exams, and participation, for all students, as follows:
Regular Assignments -- 32 points (4 points each of the 8 regular assignments that will be
graded; 8 out of 10 regular assignments are to be handed in; 2 can be skipped; I will select your
top 8 grades when more than 8 are handed in).
Case-Study Assignments -- 16 points (8 points each; the 2 case-study assignments must
be handed in).
Exams – 56 points.
First Midterm Exam, Wednesday, September 25 -- 16 percent.
Second Midterm Exam, Wednesday, October 23 -- 16 percent.
Third Midterm Exam, Wednesday, November 20 -- 16 percent.
Final Exam, date to be determined -- 8 percent, with chances to increase
grades from earlier exams.
Participation -- 12 points.
Everyone-has-a-bad-day scaling. At the end of the course I will ignore the lowest 16
points of your various grades. This is, of course, to your benefit, but understand also how that
motivates the very strict policies on late assignments and makeups, described below.
Assignments, both regular and case-study, will be weekly (except during the week of the
midterm exams) and will contain questions of several types: written assignments based on in-text
exercises and end-of-chapter problems from the textbook, assignments devised from other
readings, including The Economist, and supplementary exercises from time to time. Case-study
assignments differ from regular assignments by being more realistic, more complex, more
applied, and more inviting to you to actually use your microeconomics. Assignments will
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typically be distributed via email the Wednesday before they are due, and/or made available in
class.
Exams will be very much like assignments, involving decision-making and problemsolving of the kind represented in the textbook and lectures. A week before each required exam,
a large set of questions will be distributed to you from which most of the exam will be drawn.
You are free to work together on answering these before the exam itself (see below, Independent
and Joint Work). During the exam period you will be asked to re-draft answers to a sub-set of
the larger set. All but at most one question/problem (out of 3 or 4) on each exam will come from
the larger set. The one question you have not seen may be a brief battery of multiple choice
questions.
Participation grades will have roughly the same mean across the class as grades on
assignments and exams. Participation involves a variety of activities. Taking initiative to
advance your own knowledge is the most important thing. It might involve asking questions, in
and after class, or over email, and in office visits. It might involve discussions of supplementary
material that you see on any of our themes, say newspaper clips, or brief written reactions that
you have to course content. It might involve following up with me on my own reactions to your
written assignments, telling me why you may disagree with my assessments, and then hearing my
response. It might involve interacting in remedial sessions or seeking extra help from me. It
might involve tutoring for other students in the class, possibly even grading some of their work
(these ideas are to be refined further).
Late Assignments. Assignments are always due at the very beginning of Wednesday's
class. Those handed in after the class begins will lose 10 percent of the grade, and continue to
lose 10 percent for every subsequent 24 hour period that they are late.
Makeups. There will be no makeup exam for any of the three midterms. Unavoidable
circumstances, including sickness, are covered adequately by the "everyone-has-a-bad-day
scaling" above, and by the chance to be "re-examined" to some degree, if you desire, on the final
exam. There will be a makeup for the final exam, if necessary, at a time to be arranged during
the Winter-Spring semester. Approval of make-up privileges for the final exam is not
automatic; you must contact me in this regard as early and directly as possible.
Independent and Joint Work. On assignments, both regular and case-study (unless I
tell you explicitly otherwise), I expect independent work and will probe and penalize work that
has been done on behalf of someone else. On exam questions, you are welcome to work jointly
on answers to the large set of questions handed out before each exam, but of course you will redraft your answers independently to the smaller set during the exam period. Beware that (for
many reasons) joint study groups that are too large or too diverse tend to become satisfied with
an answer that represents only the average performance of the members of the group, not the
best.
Note, please: under no circumstances will term papers be a supplement to or substitute
for the arrangements above.
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Richardson: Office, Office Hours, Other Modes of Contact
347 Eggers Hall, Tel. 443-4339 (please leave a message on voice mail if necessary), FAX
to Global Affairs: 443-9085.
Monday, 1:30-2:45 p.m.
Tuesday, 2:30-3:45 p.m.
Wednesday, 2:30-3:45 p.m.
Other times by special arrangement.
Email address: jdrichar@maxwell.syr.edu
Most Thursdays and Fridays, I’m in Washington at the Institute for International Economics, Tel.
202 328-9000, Extension 304 (please leave a message on voice mail if necessary), FAX to 202
328-5432. Email address: jdrichar@iie.com, but I can also read my Maxwell email in
Washington.
Grading Assistant: Office and Office Hours
The grading assistant for this course is Cong Phamsi. Cong is a third-year doctoral
student in economics, and a former colleague in the IR Master’s Program. Cong will be grading
most assignments and a large portion of every exam, and will be available to assist you in
mastering the core material. But Cong will not usually be attending lectures and will not be able
to help you as easily to master the less conventional material (e.g., on the microeconomics of notfor-profits), nor to apply your microeconomics in the case studies and other practical situations.
Cong’s office hours and other information will be provided later.
Text and Readings
The textbook for this course is Robert H. Frank, Microeconomics and Behavior, fifth
edition, McGraw-Hill, 2003. It is available from Follett's Orange Bookstore in the Marshall
Square Mall, and only from there. Frank relies on his web site for important applications and
supplements; we will rely on it, too. See www.mhhe.com/economics/frank5/. Please do not try
to use the fourth or earlier editions instead of the fifth – they are significantly different and I do
not have the time help you to make everything correspond.
Handouts of newsclips and articles will be frequent in this course, and are considered part
of assigned reading unless otherwise stated in class. If you miss a class, make sure to ask me for
the handouts you missed; not all can be labeled sequentially.
In addition, The Economist magazine will provide a large number of illustrations of the
microeconomics that we are trying to master, and I encourage you to subscribe. The illustrations
will be assigned reading, and will be recorded cumulatively through the course on a
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supplementary reading list, and also sent to you weekly in an attachment to an email. I will be
providing reduced-price 14-week subscriptions to for $25 per student. Further details are on a
related handout.
Compliance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
Students who may need special consideration because of any sort of disability should
make an appointment to see me.
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