Principles of Economics I
Winter Semester 2016-17, Charles University, Faculty of Social Sciences
This course introduces economic thinking and basic principles of microeconomics for
economics students as well as for non-economists.
The lectures are the same for both Principles of Economics I (PoE, JEB101) and Principles of
Microeconomics (PoM, JEM163), while seminars as well as some requirements are different.
Please sign up for the course and select one of the seminars in the Student Information
System. The course begins with the first lecture on 5th October at 8 am in room no. 314. The
location of all lecture and seminar rooms is the Institute of Economic Studies at Opletalova
26, Praha.
This is an introductory microeconomics course with lectures and seminars for students of:
▪ English Bachelor in Economics and Finance (as a mandatory course).
▪ Czech Bachelor in Economics (mandatory, as an alternative to Ekonomie I).
▪ International Economic and Political Studies (mandatory as PoM).
▪ Any degree at Charles University with interest in economics (optional).
Lectures and seminars
Day
Time
Room
Name
Lecture
Wednesday
8:00-9:20
314
Petr Janský (web, email)
Seminars PoE
Wednesday
15:30-16:50,
17:00-18:20,
18:30-19,50
206
Hana Džmuráňová (email, web),
17:00-18:20
105
Seminar PoM
Wednesday
Vědunka Kopečná (email, web),
Hana Moravcová (email, web).
Michal Král (email)
At Wednesday lectures, students learn about the basic principles of economics in a way that
prepares them for further study of economics as well as their future professional careers.
Additionally, guest lecturers from research, business and other sectors are invited to
contribute to the lectures and thus enrich the course.
In each week, the three seminars are taught by one of the seminar tutors. In addition, there
is a special seminar PoM only for students of Principles of microeconomics (for IEPS students)
and is taught by Michal Král, who also deals with any issues related to IEPS students and their
additional requirements. Hana Džmuráňová is coordinating the seminars and is responsible
for final exams, with which other instructors will help out. Hana Moravcová is responsible for
Aplia. Please do not hesitate to contact them in case you have questions related to these
issues.
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Requirements and assessment
Students attend lectures and seminars, which are organised for their benefit. Students are
thus encouraged to provide feedback during the semester so that teaching in ongoing
seminars and lectures can be improved. Experience shows that there is a strong positive
correlation between attendance at lectures and seminars and good results in exams.
Students of PoE can choose between two main alternatives for final examination. Students
can decide either to sit in for an exam at the end of the semester (100 % of the grade) or to
combine the exam (70 %) with assignments mainly in an online Aplia system during the
semester (30 %). The exam is a test that includes various questions such as problem sets and
multiple choices (for which students can prepare at seminars). Aplia assignments are
submitted on a weekly basis (more on Aplia and how to purchase it is at the end of this
syllabus). In case Aplia would worsen the grade, only the exam’s result is taken into account.
For both Aplia and the exam, the grading follows this simple rule: the total number of points
received is divided by the maximum number of points that could have been received.
Students of PoM choose between the exam (75 %) or a combination of the exam (50 %) and
Aplia results (25 %). In addition, their requirements include an essay (25 %).
The grading follows the following rules. Total values higher than 85 % correspond to grade 1
(výborně in Czech), between 70 % and 85 % to grade 2 (chvalitebně), between 60 % and 70 %
to grade 3 (dobře).
Furthermore, it is possible for the instructors to award extra points for extraordinary activity
of students during seminars (a maximum of 0.5 point per session and 5 points during the
whole course) that count as percentage points towards the grade in addition to those outlined
above.
Readings
The course follows the material that is present in almost identical form in either of the
following two textbooks: Mankiw, N.G., Taylor, M.P.: Economics (the chapter numbers in the
weekly schedule below relate to this textbook’s 3rd version) or Mankiw, N.G..: Principles of
Economics. In addition to attending lectures and seminars, students are encouraged to read
one of these textbooks. There are a number of copies of these textbooks available in the IES
library (and some in the CERGE-EI library). The supporting web pages of this course include
the webpage of the Principles textbook, which has useful student hand-outs and other student
resources. Also, there is a Czech-English dictionary specially designed for you by one graduate
of the Principles course, Michal Spišiak. It includes a translation of every key word from the
Principles textbook and you can access it at http://dictionary.fsv.cuni.cz.
Please note that a number of other introductory economics texts provide almost equivalent
service to the student as the above listed textbooks. Especially, please consider visiting the
webpage of CORE with an excellent free online textbook.
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Weekly schedule
Week
(Winter)
Day (2016)
Themes
Book
chapters
1
5th October
Ten Principles of Economics; Thinking Like an 1 + 2
Economist
2
12th October
The Market Forces of Supply and Demand; 4 + 5
Elasticity and Its Application
3
19th October
Supply, Demand and Government Policies; The 6 + 21
Theory of Consumer Choice
4
26th October
Consumers, Producers, and the Efficiency of 7
Markets;
5
2nd
November
The Costs of Taxation; The Design of the Tax 8 + 12
System
6
9th
November
Externalities;
Resources
7
16th
November
The Costs of Production; Firms in Competitive 13 + 14
Markets
8
23th
November
Monopoly; Oligopoly; Monopolistic Competition
9
30th
November
The Markets for the Factors of Production; 18 + 19
Earnings and Discrimination
10
7th December Income Inequality and Poverty
11
14th
December
Interdependence and the Gains from Trade; 3 + 9
International Trade
12
21st
December
Frontiers of Microeconomics
Public
3
Goods
and
Common 10 + 11
15 + 16 + 17
20
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For students, who decide to have Aplia assingments
Aplia is a part of one of the two options for final examination and it is up to the students to
decide whether they want to make use of this option. Aplia is an online assignment system
that provides students with the opportunity to fulfil their course requirements gradually
during the semester on a weekly basis. Students choosing the Aplia examination option pay
the Aplia supplier GBP 18 for this course (around 555 CZK). This price buys you Aplia not only
for this course, but also for the ensuing one – Principles of Economics II in the summer
semester. Also, you can try out Aplia before paying because it offers a grace period of
unlimited access to this course to October 23rd.
Instructions on how to register for this course in Aplia:
1. Go to www.aplia.com and click on “Create a new account”, “Student account”.
2. Fill in the course key: 7GG8-VYSW-WUMC
3. Confirm course information (Principles of Economics 2016/17), fill in and then confirm
your personal information, accept email confirmation and pay now or later.
4. Login at Aplia to your course and start with your assignments!
Last, but not least, honesty is expected from all students.
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