Syllabus 303.pdf - ECO 303 PDF

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ECO 303...

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SUNY-STONY BROOK, ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT Economics 303: Intermediate Microeconomics Tu/Th 11:30-12:50, Melville Library E4320, Spring 2017 Professor Meta Brown

In this course, we will build upon the tools you learned in Economics 108 and learn new ones that will allow us to examine problems involving consumers, firms, and markets in greater detail. We will consider the individual demand and choice problem to understand how individuals decide how much of different goods and services to consume or purchase, as well as how they do this over time and in the face of uncertainty. We will examine how firms decide how much to produce and how much of different inputs to purchase for production. We will also look at different market structures and investigate how market structure affects firm behavior. While the course is mainly theoretical, this material cannot be learned passively. Active thinking, class participation, and problem solving are essential. Microeconomic theory is a tool learned only by use. Prerequisites: C or higher in Economics 108 (required) and Math 122 or higher. We will use calculus regularly throughout the semester. Office and Office Hours: My office is located in SBS S-645. Email [email protected]. Office hours will be Tuesdays and Thursdays 1-2pm and by appointment. Required textbook: Intermediate Microeconomics, by Hal R. Varian. Fifth edition or above (current edition is the 9th edition). Some of the earlier editions are very affordable. W. W. Norton, publisher. The accompanying Workouts in Intermediate Microeconomics, also by Varian, might be useful for study purposes. Recitations (Graduate and undergraduate TAs): Tuesday or Thursday 2:30-3:23pm. The graduate teaching assistant for the class is Anzhou Zhang. His office is SBS S-605, and his office hours will be Monday from 4 to 6pm. Thursday recitations start the second week of classes, and Tuesday recitations start the third week of classes. We will also have an undergraduate TA, Varun Tulasi. Varun was an excellent 303 student several semesters ago, so he should be quite helpful. His office hours will be announced shortly. Grading: • •

There will be n problem set assignments, worth 25% of the final grade. Only the best n – 1 problem set grades will be counted. Attendance and active participation in class are essential. In order to reward lecture attendance, I will present one specific concept, example, or problem in each lecture that does not appear in the posted notes and will appear in an exam. Broadly speaking, the exams will draw on material covered in lecture, problem sets, and recitation only.

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Recitation is necessary for finding and collaborating with study groups, and for general support of your progress. The easiest way to earn a good grade in this class is to attend lecture and recitation. Midterm exams, each worth 20% of the final grade, will be given on February 28 and April 11. The final exam will be given on Wednesday, May 10th from 5:30-8pm. It will be worth 35% of your grade. You are encouraged to work on problem sets in groups. However, you must turn in your own individual problem set for grading.

Topics we will be covering 1. Introduction and motivation: The market: demand, supply, equilibrium, comparative statics, market structure and Pareto efficiency (Ch. 1, week1) 2. Consumer Choice, Step 1: the budget constraint. Two goods world (Ch 2, week 1 and 2) 3. Consumer Choice, Step 2: preferences. Consumer preferences, indifference curves and examples. Marginal Rate of Substitution (MRS). (Ch. 3, week 2 and 3) 4. Utility, Step 3: preferences and utility. Utility functions, marginal utility and the MRS. (Ch. 4, week 3 and 4) 5. Choice and Demand, the final step. Now we have all the elements to understand Consumer Demand. Examples and some special applications. (Ch. 5 and Ch. 6, week 4 and 5) 6. Inter-temporal Choice: It’s about time...and it links with the field of Finance (Ch. 10, week 6) 7. Uncertainty: choice under uncertainty. We have no crystal ball but we can still make decisions (Ch. 12, week 7). TBD whether we will cover it. 8. Market Demand: Elasticity. (Ch. 15, week 7 and 8) 9. Equilibrium: market equilibrium. (Ch. 16, week 8 and 9) 10.Technology: inputs, outputs and the Technical Rate of Substitution (Ch. 18, week 10) 11.Profit maximization (Ch. 19, week 11 and 12)

12.Cost minimization and Cost Curves (Ch. 20 and 21, week 12 and 13) 13.Firm Supply and Industry Supply (Ch. 22 and 23, week 13 and 14)

Blackboard: We will use Blackboard (blackboard.stonybrook.edu), SUNY's course management system, often. If you are not familiar with Blackboard, please visit it.stonybrook.edu/services/blackboard/blackboard-students. I will post lecture slides that reflect the core material from each lecture. However, material directly relevant to the exams but not in the circulated slides may appear in any lecture. (I.e., get to class.) Additional practice exercises may also be given. Technology: The exams will not require calculation beyond that performed by basic calculators. Therefore graphing calculators or other programmable devices will not be permitted in the exam room. Please contact me with any concerns. Americans with Disabilities Act: If you have a physical, psychological, medical or learning disability that may impact your course work, please contact Disability Support Services, ECC (Educational Communications Center) Building, room128, (631) 632-6748. They will determine with you what accommodations, if any, are necessary and appropriate. All information and documentation is confidential. We are a community of scholars. Therefore I have the utmost faith in your integrity and your understanding of the importance of university disincentives for academic misconduct and general misconduct. I do not expect the following two items to become relevant to our course. Nevertheless: Academic integrity: Each student must pursue his or her academic goals honestly and be personally accountable for all submitted work. Representing another person's work as your own is always wrong. Faculty are required to report any suspected instances of academic dishonesty to the Academic Judiciary. Faculty in the Health Sciences Center (School of Health Technology & Management, Nursing, Social Welfare, Dental Medicine) and School of Medicine are required to follow their school-specific procedures. For more information on academic integrity, including categories of academic dishonesty, please refer to the academic judiciary website at http://www.stonybrook.edu/uaa/academicjudiciary/. Critical incident management: Stony Brook University expects students to respect the rights, privileges, and property of other people. Faculty are required to report to the Office of University Community Standards any disruptive behavior that interrupts their ability to teach, compromises the safety of the learning environment, or inhibits students' ability to learn. Faculty in the HSC Schools and the School of Medicine are required to follow their school-specific procedures. Further information about most academic matters can be found in the Undergraduate Bulletin, the Undergraduate Class Schedule, and the Faculty-Employee Handbook....