Syllabus for Introduction to Microeconomics Fall 2013 (TENTATIVE) Professor Jeffrey Rubin Office Location: NJ Hall, 75 Hamilton St., College Ave. Campus, Room 430 Office Hours: Monday 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and by appointment Email: rubin@econ.rutgers.edu Phone: 848-932-7452 220:102 Section 4 This course satisfies Core Curriculum goals: I, M and N 10:20 a.m. to 11:40 a.m. Monday and Thursday Beck Auditorium, Livingston Campus First class would normally be Thursday September 5, 2013. But, that is a religious holiday for me so that class is cancelled. The first day that the class will meet will be Monday, September 9, 2013. First Exam: October 14 and Second Exam: November 14 Last Class is Monday, December 9, 2013 The final exam for this class is scheduled for Monday, December 23rd at 8:00 a.m. This is the last day of exams. Therefore, it is VERY important that you make your travel plans accordingly. I will positively, absolutely, definitely not give the exam at any time other than the designated period. The room for the final exam will be announced at a later date. Any type of AUDIO-VISUAL RECORDING (sound, still photos, video) OF CLASS is NOT permitted without the explicit written authorization of the instructor and notification of other students in the class, except where notification from the Office of Disability Services is provided. 1
The TA for this course is Bin Xie. He will post office hours early in the semester. The pre-requisite for this class is pre-calculus (01:640: 111, 112 or 115) or placement into calculus. Text: Microeconomics, Krugman and Wells, 3 rd edition Study Guide, Kelly, 3rd edition (The study guide will be available at the sakai site for the class.) I will frequently post articles relating to microeconomics and hope to have a discussion in sakai on some of them. There are many good sources for interesting articles where you can apply basic economics principles. One place I read every day is the NY Times at nytimes.com. You can also check out the Wall Street Journal (wsj.com). Check out washingtonpost.com now and then too. You may be able to get full access to these sites by going through the RU library website. Other places to find articles relevant to microeconomics include google news, yahoo news, bloomberg.com and numerous blogs. Two influential economics blogs are written by Paul Krugman at krugman.blogs.nytimes.com and by Greg Mankiw of Harvard at gregmankiw.blogspot.com. For this course you will need online access to Sapling, which is an online homework system. Information about Sapling is available under Resources in Sakai. Do not buy anything until you read my announcement about Sapling and the book. You will be able to get a package including a loose leaf version of the book and a Sapling access code at the bookstore or you will be able to purchase an electronic version of the book directly through Sapling and save money. Going directly to Saplinglearning.com for Sapling access and the e-book will be $80. (The study guide won t be on Sapling but I will post it in sakai under Resources.). This course consists of two 80 minute lectures each week. Class meets Monday and Thursday in Beck Auditorium on the Livingston Campus. The lectures will present basic material in microeconomics, with an emphasis on the analytical techniques commonly used in economics. In Introduction to Microeconomics students will learn the meaning and relevance of basic economic concepts including opportunity costs, positive and normative economics, scarcity, tradeoffs, comparative advantage, marginal analysis, efficiency and equity, and market failure. Students will learn: 1. Basic economic concepts including opportunity costs, scarcity, positive and normative economics 2
2. How to analyze production possibilities of firms and countries, the sources of their comparative advantages, and gains from trade 3. How to use the supply and demand model to understand how markets work. 4. How elasticity is calculated and its relevance to understanding markets. 5. How to analyze consumer behavior with respect to decisions about consumption, savings and employment. 6. How to analyze decisions firms make about pricing, output, employment and investment. 7. How to analyze the behavior of firms in alternative market structures including perfect competition, monopoly, monopolistic competition and oligopoly. 8. How to apply basic game theory to strategic interaction between companies and individuals 9. How to use the concepts of equity, efficiency, and market failure to analyze and evaluate government policies such as price floors and ceilings, tax policy, environmental policy, etc. 10. How to apply economic concepts and ideas to situations not specifically covered in class. I build my lectures around a set of slides that are based on the Krugman text. The slides are posted in the resources section of sakai. Some students prefer to print the slides (or load them on a tablet or laptop) and bring them to class and make notes directly on the printed slides. Your grade will be determined by your performance on two hourly exams, a final exam, assigned homework problems and some additional in class and out of class assignments. Each hourly exam will be worth 220 points and the final exam will be worth 400 points (and it will cover the entire course). The Sapling homework assignments will be worth a total of 100 points. There also will be a series of assignments (in and out of class) worth a total of 60 points. (More on this in class.) Your grade will be based on your total score out of 1,000 points. The exact cutoff points for different letter grades will be determined after the final exam. You should assume the cutoffs will be the standard ones: 900 (90%) for an A, 800 (80%) for a B etc. In all likelihood I will lower those cutoffs (i.e., curve the grades) after the final exam. I will discuss in this class some more. The hourly exams are on Monday October 14th and Thursday November 14 th. These exams will be given during the regular class period in the Beck classroom. The final exam is on Monday December 23 rd at 8:00 a.m. No calculators, cell phones, Ipods, tablets or other electronic devices may be used during the exams. Hourly exams consist of 55 multiple choice questions and the final exam will have 100 multiple choice questions. To encourage you to work through the Study 3
Guide, some multiple choice questions on each exam will come directly from the Study Guide. Also, it is important to practice using graphs and to become familiar with these before the first exam. If the first time you draw a graph without the book open and without seeing it on the screen during lectures is during the first exam, it is too late. General course announcements and other related news, advice and suggestions will be posted on the announcement, discussion, and chat room portions of the Sakai site for this class. You are expected to check this Sakai site several times a week to get important information about the course. Discussion boards will be available at sakai.rutgers.edu under the tab for this course. I will also monitor and participate in the chat room on sakai at various times throughout the term. You are also responsible for regularly checking Sapling for homework assignments. There are absolutely NO extensions for missed work in Sapling. There are a few important rules that you should know. First, cheating is totally unacceptable. The University has established severe penalties for cheating. The University s policy on academic integrity is found at: http://studentconduct.rutgers.edu/files/documents/ai_policy_9_01_2011.pdf Second, once the lecture begins, you should remain seated throughout the entire class. There is almost nothing that upsets the person who makes up the exams (me) and determines the curve (me) than the sight of a student walking out in the middle of a lecture. This is entirely inappropriate and should be avoided. If you know you have to leave early, see me before class; otherwise you are expected to remain until class is over. Third, this class begins promptly at 10:20 a.m. Please be seated by that time. Late arrivals disturb me and the rest of the class. Class ends at 11:40 a.m. and in an effort to ensure that you get your money's worth, I almost always go to the end of the scheduled period. I do not need to be reminded of the time through the traditional shuffling of papers and closing of notebooks. Some of my best material comes at the end of class! Fourth, it is not appropriate to read newspapers, send text messages, view your Facebook page, do crossword puzzles or have extended conversations with fellow students during class. Fifth, turn off all electronic devices such as cell phones, pagers and beeping watches. Sixth, I will not officially take attendance, but it is my strong impression that those who attend class get better grades than those who find something else to do with their time. (There is an intriguing "cause and effect" problem 4
buried in the interpretation of my observation. Do you see it? If so, you have a head start in understanding economics.) Students are expected to attend all classes; The University now has an absence reporting website: http://sims.rutgers.edu/ssra/ that can be used to indicate the date and reason for your absence. An e-mail is automatically sent to me. If you are only missing a single class it is really not essential to use this system. If you will be missing multiple classes in a row you should use this system to self-report your absences. The University also has a code of student conduct: Here is a summary from the catalog: University Code of Student Conduct Summary A university in a free society must be devoted to the pursuit of truth and knowledge through reason and open communication among its members. Its rules should be conceived for the purpose of furthering and protecting the rights of all members of the University community in achieving these ends. All members of the Rutgers University community are expected to behave in an ethical and moral fashion, respecting the human dignity of all members of the community and resisting behavior that may cause danger or harm to others through violence, theft, or bigotry. All members of the Rutgers University community are expected to adhere to the civil and criminal laws of the local community, state, and nation, and to regulations promulgated by the University. All members of the Rutgers University community are expected to observe established standards of scholarship and academic freedom by respecting the intellectual property of others and by honoring the right of all students to pursue their education in an environment free from harassment and intimidation. Preamble University Code of Student Conduct For more information see: http://studentconduct.rutgers.edu/files/documents/ucscjuly2011.pdf 5
September 5, 2013 NO CLASS Tentative Course Outline September 9 and 12 Introduction and Chapters 1 and 2 September 16 and 19 Chapters 2 (plus appendix) and 3 September 23 and 26 Chapters 4 and 5 Sept. 30 and Oct. 3 Chapters 5 and 6 October 7 and 10 Chapters 6 and 7 October 14 EXAM 1 October 17 and 21 Chapters 9 and 10 (skipping chapter 8) October 24 and 28 Chapters 10 (plus appendix) and 11 Oct. 31 and Nov. 4 Chapters 11 and 12 November 7 and 11 Chapters 13 and 14 November 14 EXAM 2 November 18 and 21 Chapters 15 and 16 November 25 and 26 Chapters 17 and 18 NOTICE THAT DURING THANSGIVING WEEK RUTGERS FOLLOWS A THURSDAY SCHEDULE ON TUESDAY THE 26 TH December 2 and 5 Chapters 19 (plus appendix) and 20 December 9 Review and Catch-Up Final Exam Monday December 23 rd from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. (Location to be announced) 6
Department of Economics Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey February 2008 Learning Goals for Economics Majors 1. Economic Literacy - Students who complete the major in economics should understand and be able to articulate, both orally and in writing, the core economic principles, concepts and theories that form the foundation for modern economic analysis and economic research. 2. Economic Numeracy - Students who complete the economics major should be familiar with the tools, techniques and methods of empirical economics. They should be able to analyze data using computer applications and should be familiar with regression methods and other statistical techniques. They should be able to read and assess general interest articles on economic topics. In addition, they should be able to understand and evaluate key findings in published economic research from a wide range of sources including academic economists, public policy think tanks, and government agencies. 3. Economic Citizenship - Upon completion of the major students should be able to apply their understanding of core concepts and quantitative tools to analyze and research real world problems and evaluate alternative economic policy proposals on microeconomic and macroeconomic issues. 4. Economic Scholarship Qualified majors should have an opportunity through such avenues as advanced coursework, faculty interactions, national and local competitions and honors courses and programs to utilize up-to-date methodological tools and become fully engaged in economic research and issues on the frontiers of economics. 7