Intermediate Micro Fall 2021 PDF

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Intermediate Microeconomics Fall 2021 Professor: TA:

Andrew Caplin Eric Spurlino

Zoom Office Hours:

Prof. Caplin: Th 9–10 a.m/4–5 p.m.

Lecture: MW 12.30-1.45 Silver 401 Recitation: W (25W4 C-6) 4.55-6.10 or R (194M 307) 4.55-6.10 Eric: MW 11–12

There is no required textbook for the course which is based on lecture notes (jointly authored with Professor Srijita Ghosh of Ashoka University) and online videos on Classes. Additional material is also available in a Text written by Professor Ghosh which will also be available on Classes. Any edition of Varian Intermediate Microeconomics can be used if you want additional back-up material, but this text is not in anyway necessary for success in this course. The course comprises five major units: a detailed lecture guide is below. 1. Consumer Demand 2. Exchange Equilibrium 3. Expected Utility, Risk Aversion, and Insurance 4. The Economic Life Cycle 5. Research Lecture notes for each unit will be uploaded to Classes before that unit begins with adjustments as appropriate. For those who are unable to attend a lecture in person, I will have uploaded a recording to Brightspace ahead of time. My office hours will be remote and on Zoom. If you cannot make official hours, please email me for an alternative time. Review sessions with the Teaching Assistant (Eric Spurlino) will serve both to clarify the course material and to go over homework answers. In addition to the scheduled Zoom office hours, you can email Eric for additional times. My email address is [email protected] and Eric’s is [email protected]. There are three aspects of the course that will contribute to the overall grade. • There will be a series of 8 problem sets. These problem sets will together account for 25% of the grade. For each student, the lowest individual homework score will be dropped and not count toward the grade. In addition to these graded homeworks, there will be additional Practice Problems uploaded to Classes. The Practice Problems are for your practice only, and need not be submitted. Your answers to graded homeworks are to be handed in by Monday’s lecture. They can be turned in at the start of that lecture, e-mailed to Eric prior to the lecture’s start time, or put in Eric’s mailbox (19 W. 4th St, 6th Floor), prior to the lecture’s start time. He will go over both the homeworks and the practice problems in recitation and then post answers. • There will be two equally weighted mid-term exams which will be in person in class. Together, the mid-terms will account for 50% of the grade. • The final 25% of the course grade will be based on a short final research proposal (no more than 5 pages single-spaced) that will involve you putting the ideas taught in the course to work on a real world question related to income, spending and saving over the life cycle. You can work in teams of up to 3, with the understanding that all will receive the same grade. The precise question(s) and grading scheme will be detailed at the start of Unit 5 of the course as detailed below. The proposals are to be uploaded to Classes by end of day Friday December 14. • If you cannot complete either of the mid-terms for medical reasons and you have a Doctor’s note, the grade for the other exam will count double. page 1 of 2

ECON-UA 10

August 31, 2021

Unit 1: Consumer Demand 1. Budget Sets 2. Preferences and Choice 3. The Geometry of Demand 4. Income and Substitution Effects 5. Utility Maximization and Demand 6. Concave Functions and Optimization 7. Cobb-Douglas Demand Functions 8. Revealed Preference Unit 2: Exchange Equilibrium 9. The Edgeworth Box 10. Exchange Equilibrium and Pareto Optimality 11. Computing Equilibria 12. Mid-term 1

Unit 3: Expected Utility, Risk Aversion, and Insurance Markets 13. Lotteries and the Substitution Axiom 14. The Expected Utility Theorem 15. Monetary Prizes and Risk Aversion 16. Risk Aversion and Demand for Insurance 17. Insurance Markets and Financial Markets

Unit 4: The Economic Life Cycle 18. The Life Cycle Framework and the Research Paper 19. Precautionary Savings 20. Employment and Earnings 21. Mid-Term 2 Unit 5: Research Topics

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