ECONOMICS 270 C:
Microeconomic Theory I
Winter 2016
Instructor:
Email:
Office hours:
Office:
Phone:
Faculty Assistant:
Hideki Ariizumi
[email protected]
Wednesdays, 1:00 p.m. - 2:20 p.m. or by appointment
P3034
884-0710 ext. 2277
Helen Kaluzny ext. 2720
E-mail is typically the best way to contact me outside of office hours. All e-mail MUST include
EC270 in the subject line. Otherwise, you should not expect a response. I check email regularly
during the weekdays. I do not normally check e-mail in the evening or on weekends.
Important information for all students. Please read carefully!
Academic Integrity:
Wilfrid Laurier University uses software that can check for plagiarism. Students may be
required to submit their written work in electronic form and have it checked for plagiarism.
You are reminded that the University will levy sanctions on students who are found to have
committed, or have attempted to commit, acts of academic or research misconduct. You are
expected to know what constitutes an academic offense, to avoid committing such offenses, and to
take responsibility for your academic actions. For information on categories of offenses and types
of penalty, please consult the relevant section of the Undergraduate Academic Calendar. If you
need clarification of aspects of University policy on Academic and Research Misconduct, please
consult your instructor.
For more information, please refer to the Laurier web page at http://www.wlu.ca/academicintegrity
Accessible Learning:
Students with disabilities or special needs are advised to contact Laurier’s Accessible Learning
Office for information regarding its services or resources. You can find it under Academic
Services at the Laurier web page (http://www.wlu.ca/). Students are also encouraged to review all
services available on campus at the Academic Services.
Course Description:
An examination of conventional microeconomic theories attempts to explain the nature of markets
and the behaviour of individuals and firms. Topics will include consumer choice, the technology
and costs of production, firm behaviour, competition and market structure.
EC270 builds on first year microeconomics (EC120) to provide a deeper understanding of the
theory of partial equilibrium analysis (supply and demand) and to introduce techniques you will
find helpful in your applied economics courses. We will explore how consumers make decisions
and use consumer theory to derive the demand curve. We will also discuss insights consumer
theory provides on other aspects of consumer decision-making as well as government policy. We
will examine production and costs and see how a firms uses information to make decisions.
Producer theory will be used to derive the supply curve in a competitive market. We will evaluate
the competitive market outcome, discuss circumstances when markets fail to achieve an optimal
outcome and consider the possible role for government.
Text:
Nicholson, Walter, and Christopher Snyder, Microeconomic Theory: Basic Principles and
Extensions, 11th Edition, 2011.
Course website:
I will be using MyLearningSpace, mainly for announcements (for all the sections). I WILL NOT
check e-mail in the MyLearningSpace internal e-mail system.
To log in to the MyLearningSpace, please follow the instructions on
(https://mylearningspace.wlu.ca/). You can find all the necessary information there.
the
web
Course Requirements:
There will be assignments (see below), two midterm tests and a final exam.
Assignments
Midterm #1
Midterm #2
Final Exam
Weight
10%
20%
20%
50%
Date
See below
Jan. 29 (Fri.), 3-4:30pm
Mar.11 (Fri.), 3-4:30pm
April, 2016
Location
TBA
TBA
TBA
Each exam covers all the materials up to the date, including the materials from
prerequisites. This means that the second midterm exam covers the materials that might have
tested in the first midterm exam. There will be no deferred midterm exam. If you miss a midterm
exam, the weight will be transferred to the final exam. No documentation is required.
The following scheme only applies to the students who write both midterm exams. For a
risk diversification mechanism, I will re-weigh the two midterms if you write both midterm
exams: the higher score counts 30% and the lower score counts 10%. Also as a learning
experience, I value your improvement over the course. Hence, if you write both midterm exams
and your final exam score is greater than both midterm exams, then I will count your final exam as
75% and your highest midterm score is counted as 10%, and the lower score is counted as 5%. If
you miss either one of the midterm exams, you are not eligible for this scheme because there are
not enough data points to assess your improvement.
Quick summary of the scheme:
If you write all the exams, but
final exam is lower than the
highest score of the midterms
If you write all the exams, and
final exam is even higher than
the highest score of the
midterms
If you miss the midterm #1,
If you miss the midterm #2,
Assignment
10%
10%
10%
10%
Midterm #1
Midterm #2
30% from the
higher score, and 10% from
the lower score
10% from the
higher score, and 5% from the
lower score
missed
20%
20%
missed
Final
50%
75%
70%
70%
If you would like to appeal your grade on your midterm exam, you must submit a written
justification on the appeal within one week upon the return of your midterm exam.
Assignments
There will be three short assignments. Two highest marks out of three will be counted in your
course grade (5% each). The assignments will be posted in MyLearningSpace. No late submission
will be accepted. If you miss it, it will be marked as zero. But remember that I will count only two
highest scores out of the three assignments.
Course Tutorials
EC270 has optional course tutorials lead by the instructional assistant. The purpose of the tutorial
is to provide an opportunity for students to get help with the numerical practice questions in the
problem sets.
Instructional Assistant: Farah Omran
Time:
TBA
Location:
TBA
Policy on Technology Use
Mobile devices of any kind are permitted provided they do not taking way from the instruction of
the course or the learning of other students (e.g., noise level, disturbing/distracting content). Both
you and I are responsible for administering this policy. If you are not comfortable approaching
another student, you can email or talk to me in person. If you fail to comply with this policy, you
will first receive a verbal and written warning before being asked to leave the classroom for all or
part of the course.
Course Outline (subject to some changes):
We cover the following chapters:
•
•
•
•
Introduction:
Choice and Demand:
Production and Supply:
Markets:
Chapter 1 & 2
Chapter 3, 4, 5, & 6
Chapter 9, 10, & 11
Chapter 12 & 14
The following table is a tentative time line for the course:
Week 1
(Jan. 4-Jan.8)
Week 2
(Jan.11-Jan.15)
Week 3
(Jan.18-Jan.22)
Week 4
(Jan.25-Jan.29)
Tuesday
Ch. 1: Introduction
Ch.3: Preferences and Utility
Thursday
Ch.
2:
Mathematics
Microeconomics
Continued
Ch.4: Utility Maximization and Continued
Choice
Assignment 1 due (4pm)
Ch.5: Income and Substitution Review Class
Effects
Week 5
(Feb.1-Feb.5)
Week 6
(Feb.8-Feb.12)
Reading Break
Week 7
(Feb.22-Feb.26)
Week 8
(Feb.29-Mar.4)
Week 9
(Mar.7-Mar.11)
Week 10
(Mar.14-Mar.18)
Week 11
(Mar.21-Mar.25)
Week 12
(Mar.28-Apr.1)
Ch.6: Demand Relationships among Continued
Goods
Ch.9: Production Functions
Continued
Exam Period
April 7-23, 2016
Ch.10: Cost Functions
Continued
Ch.11: Profit Maximization
Continued
Assignment 2 due (4pm)
Review Class
Continued
Ch.12:
Partial
Competitive Model
Ch.14: Monopoly
Equilibrium Continued
Continued
Assignment 3 due (4pm)
Reserved class for adjusting the Review Class
contents
for