Syllabus
The key components of the syllabus are outlined below. The complete syllabus (PDF) has additional policies and information about the course. Please read it carefully.
Overview
For most of human history, living standards barely changed. Then, beginning around 1700, they took off, first in Britain and then across much of the world. Behind this takeoff was a new way of organizing economic life, capitalism, built on private property, markets, and firms. This course is about the nuts and bolts of how that system works.
We build the core tools of microeconomics and use them to answer everyday questions along the way: Why are almost all the big brands in the grocery store owned by ten companies? Why does Cheerios cost more than the store brand sitting right next to it, and why do people keep buying it anyway? When bird flu sent egg prices soaring, were companies profiting or just surviving? If the government taxes gasoline, who bears the burden, the oil companies or you? Is capping rent to make housing affordable a good idea? Why do we end up with more pollution than anyone actually wants? And why do some things, like parks and street cleaning, need to be provided by the government instead of businesses?
Learning Goals
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Understand how to measure opportunity cost and apply it to determine optimal choices or trade-offs
- Determine a predicted market equilibrium using information from graphs or tables describing demand and supply decisions
- Calculate elasticities (own price, income, or cross-price) using price and quantity data
- Understand how to measure economic surplus and apply it to determine the efficiency of trades or transactions
- Use the supply and demand model to predict the equilibrium effects of government interventions in markets
- Calculate marginal products and marginal costs, and use this information to determine profit-maximizing decisions
- Understand the characteristics related to market structures (perfect competition, monopoly, monopolistic competition, oligopoly)
Required Texts
The required textbook for this course is The Economy 2.0: Microeconomics by CORE Econ. The complete textbook is free and open access, available online at:
The online edition is the version I will refer to in class. To read offline, it is also free as an app and as an ebook, both listed under Formats on the CORE site. If you prefer reading on paper, a printed paperback is available from the publisher (Hackett, ISBN 978-1-64792-160-6).
Grading Criteria
Your grade will be determined according to the following breakdown:
| Component | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Writing assignment, Part 1 | 5 |
| Writing assignment, Part 2 | 10 |
| Quizzes (8 in class, lowest 2 dropped) | 30 |
| Midterm 1 | 15 |
| Midterm 2 | 15 |
| Final Exam (cumulative) | 25 |
| Total | 100 |