Econ 101

ECONOMICS 101: PRINCIPLES OF MICROECONOMICS

Summer 2004

Ying Gao (Cathy)

(MTWRF 11:00-12:00, Agron 2050)

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Instructor

Name: Ying Gao (Cathy)

Tel: 232-0565

Email: gaowinds@iastate.edu

Office: Helproom 20 Curtiss Hall

Office Hours: MTW 10:00-11:00 am or by appointment

If you need to get in touch with me, please send me an e-mail first.

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Teaching assistants

Name:Lin Yang Name: Jie Zhu

Email: linyang@iastate.edu Email:jayzhu@iastate.edu

Office: help room 20 Curtiss Hall Office: help room 20 Curtiss Hall

Hours: Tuesday 12pm-3pm Hours: Monday 12pm-3pm

· All questions regarding homework, classwork and doubts can be addressed to the respective TAs

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Announcements:

1. We’ll take the final exam on August 5th (Thursday). The final is comprehensive and covers the contents through chapter1 to chapter6,but we’ll put the emphasis on chapter4-6.

2. I have put the final exam score and the comprehensive grades on the website.

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Syllabus

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Course Overview:

Economics is the study of how society manages its scarce resources including natural resources, human labor, environmental amenities, and “capital”. In countries with “market economies”, decisions made by millions of households and firms determine how these resources are used. Individual decision makers do not act in isolation, however. Instead, their actions are coordinated by the market mechanism. This course, in particular, is an introduction to microeconomics, the study of how “agents” (individuals, households, business firms, government agencies, etc.) make resource allocation decisions and how the market works to reconcile all of these decisions.

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Goals of Econ 101:

To understand how consumers decide what and how much to consume, how firms decide how many inputs to use and how much output to supply, and how these decisions are influenced by a market economy. To be comfortable conducting simple market analysis using supply and demand. To understand the circumstances under which competitive markets result in socially optimal outcomes, and to understand why unregulated markets result in inefficient outcomes in the presence of imperfect competition or externalities.

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Book Purchases:

Text (required): Robert E. Hall and Marc Lieberman. Microeconomics: Principles and Application, 2^nd edition updated. South-Western College Publishing, 2004.

Study Guide (recommended): Geoffrey A. Jehle. Mastery Study Guide for Microeconomics: Principles and Application, 2^nd edition. South-Western College Publishing, 2004.

The book contains a Graphics Workshop on CD-ROM. The CD-ROM contains review material for each chapter as well as simple-to-use software that you can use to conduct graphical analysis. The book’s website is http://www.swcollege.com/bef/hall/hall-lieb2e/hall-liebmic2e.html, where you can also find something useful.

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Grading Policy:

Quizzes 10%

Problem Set 20%

Midterm 1 20%

Midterm 2 20%

Final Exam 30%

· Quizzes: There will be a few in-class quizzes throughout the course. The time will be announced in class. All the scores will be considered in the final assessment and there will be no make-up quizzes.

· Problem Sets: There will be 4-5 problem sets during the course. Problem sets must be turned in during class on the assigned due date. Late problem sets will not be accepted unless the student has provided prior notification for a valid excuse.

· Midterm Exams: There will be two midterm exams. The time will be announced in class. Make-up exams will not be given. In the case of a medical or family emergency, where the student has an excused absence, their final grades will be determined by weighing the other factors more heavily.

· Final Exam: The final exam will be accumulative and take place the day before the last day of class, i.e. August 8th.

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Homework Quiz Midterm Final

Homework 1 Answer key Quiz #1( answer key) Exam #1( answer key) Final exam(answer key)