PRINCIPLE OF MICROECONOMICS
LECTURER:Du ying
TIME: Wednesday Afternoon 1:30pm
LOCATION: XingLong District,4-403
EMAIL: duy@sdu.edu.cn
COURSE WEBSITE: http://course.sdu.edu.cn
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Economics is about the allocation of scarce resources. Each of us has an unlimited number of things we want. For example: Peace, fresh air, fast car, nice apartment, leisure time and so on. Unfortunately, we do not have enough resources to satisfy all of our wants. How do people make trade offs among them? How do markets work to organize economic activities? How do market agents respond to incentives? These are fundamental questions that we will try to answer in this class.
This is an introductory course to Microeconomics. Goals of this course are (1) to introduce you the way economist think, and (2) to provide you with experience in using economic theories and tools to solve actual economic problems. When you have completed this course, you are expected to use your knowledge to interpret and form opinions on many economic and social issues that confront you.
TEXTBOOK: The required textbook for this course is Principles of Microeconomics, by Gregory Mankiw.
OTHER RECOMMENDED READINGS:
Microeconomics, 7th edition, Robert S. Pindyck and Daniel L. Rubinfeld.
EXERCISES: Besides practice problems, a few real- world economic problems will be discussed during the class and then posted later online.
GRADING:
Your final course grade will be determined by the following weights:
Midterm 40%
Final 60%
TOPICS:
WEEK1-2
Part I. Introduction
---Ten fundamental principles on which the study of economics is based;
---How do economists approach problem;
---How do individuals and countries gain from trade.
Readings: Chapter 1-3
WEEK3-5
Part II. Supply, Demand and Policies
--- How do markets work; how do supply and demand for a good determine both the quantity produced and the price at which the good sells;
--- The concept of elasticity (the sensitivity of the quantity supplied and quantity demanded to changes in economic variables.)
--- The impact of government policies on prices and quantities in markets.
Readings: Chapter 4-6
WEEK 6-8
Part III. Markets and Welfare
--- The supply-and –demand model to develop consumer surplus and producer surplus as a measure of welfare and market efficiency.
--- The winners and losers from taxation and restrictions on international trade.
Readings: Chapter 7-9
WEEK 10-11
Part IV. Economics of the Public Sector
--- Externalities (the uncompensated impact of one person’s actions on the well-being of a bystander.)
--- Public goods and common resources.
--- Tax system
Readings: Chapter 10-12
WEEK 12-13
Part V. Firm Behavior
--- Cost curves on which firm behavior is based.
--- How does a competitive firm respond to changes in market conditions? Readings: Chapter 13\14
WEEK 14-16
Part VI. Monopoly, Monopolistic Competition and Oligopoly
--- How does a monopolistic firm choose the quantity to produce and the price to charge?
--- Monopolistic competition (a market structure in which many firms sell products that are similar but not identical.)
--- Oligopoly (a market structure in which only a few sellers offer similar or identical products.)
Readings: Chapter 15-17
WEEK 16-17
Part VII. Labor Markets
--- Markets for the factors of production (labor, land and capital)
--- Why do some workers earn more than others?
--- The distribution of income and the role the government can play in this.
Readings: chapter 18-20
WEEK 18
Part VIII. Consumer Choices
--- Theory of consumer choice
--- Some further topics
Readings: chapter 21\22
Supplemental Online Resources:
These are the outputs of a mini-project funded by the Economics Network. A good website for Problem-Based Learning of Principles of Microeconomics.
http://www.economicsnetwork.ac.uk/projects/mini/forsythe_pbl.htm
This web site contains a variety of useful online resources for students using Microeconomics by Mankiw.
http://websites.swlearning.com/cgi-wadsworth/course_products_wp.pl?fid=M20b&product_isbn_issn=9780324589986&discipline_number=414
EconPort is a microeconomics digital library funded by the USA's National Science Foundation.
http://www.econport.org/econport/request?page=man
The apple market is a sample chapter from the textbook Experiments with economic principles by Bergstrom and Miller (1996), published by McGraw Hill. The chapter takes the student through a one-session experiment to illustrate the concept of the market.
http://www.econ.ucsb.edu/~tedb/eep/eepsam.pdf
This website contains some case studies for microeconomics.
http://www.economicsnetwork.ac.uk/projects/mini/smithhillman_casestudies.htm