Department of Economics Bishop’s University ECO102 Principles of Microeconomics Fall 2014 Course Outline Instructor: Terry Eyland Office: Dobson Lagacé 201 (Entrepreneurship Centre / Cormier Centre) Office hours: Tuesday and Thursday: 11:50-12:50, Tuesday 4:00-5:15 and by appointments. Phone: (819)-822-9600 ext. 2752 Email: [email protected] _____________________________________________________________________________ Course Description: This course provides an introduction to microeconomic theory and its applications. Topics covered in this course include (i) an introduction to microeconomics, including the basic demand-supply model; (ii) consumer and producer behaviour, including consumer utility maximization and production and costs of firms; (iii) the theory of market structure, including the role of competition, monopoly, and strategic interactions between firms; and (iv) microeconomic applications such as the analysis of taxation, public goods, and international trade. Course Text: Christopher T. S. Ragan (2013). Microeconomics. 14th Canadian Edition, Pearson-Addison Wesley. Course Evaluation: Course evaluation is based on one of the following options, whichever gives the student the highest possible grade: (1) 2 midterms (30% each for 60%) and final exam (40%) OR (2) Best of two midterm exams (40%), and final exam (60%) *** Anyone caught cheating on an exam will receive a grade of 0 for the whole course. Term test 1 Term test 2 Final Exam September 2, 2014 (Thursday) November 6, 2014 (Thursday) TBD Your final grade will be determined by the larger sum of the two options listed above. No other alternative grading scheme is available. There will be no make-up exam. Option 2 applies automatically if you miss a midterm. Calculators required (graphical calculators and cellular phones forbidden). Student ID card required for all exams. If the date(s) of the midterm and/or any quizzes create(s) “inconvenience,” it is recommended that you consider switching to another section of ECO102. No supplemental exam will be provided for this course (see pages 31-32 of Bishop’s University Academic Calendar 2014/2015). IMPORTANT NOTE: Please DO NOT make any travel arrangement during the final exam period. The last day of final exam for Fall 2014 is December 12, 2014 (Friday). You MUST make yourself available to write the final exam on the scheduled date as assigned by the Records Office. All exams contain multiple-choice, short answer and / or long answer questions. Topics and Readings: Approximately three weeks will be spent on each of the following sections: Section I: Introduction to microeconomics (Chapters 1-5) Section II: Behaviour of consumers and producers (Chapters 6-8) Section III: Market structure analysis (Chapters 9-11) Section IV: Microeconomic applications (Chapters 13, 16, 18, and 33) Topics Reading Introduction Chapter 1 Production possibility frontier, the demandsupply model. Elasticity, social welfare, consumers’ surplus and producers’ surplus. Applications of demand and supply analysis, consumer behaviour Production decisions and costs in the shortrun and long-run. Competitive markets Chapters 2 & 3 Monopoly Chapter 10 Imperfect competition: oligopoly and monopolistic competition, labour markets. Market failures, public goods, taxation Chapters 11 & 13 International trade, absolute and comparative advantage. Chapter 33 Chapters 4 & 5 Chapters 5 & 6 Chapters 7 & 8 Chapter 9 Chapters 16 & 18 Please note that we may not have enough time to cover all topics listed above. Note: Computers are permitted during class time only if used as an extra learning aid. ECO102 Practice questions: Chapter Study Exercises (in italics is the number in 13th edition if different) 1 2(3), 3(4), 4(6), 5(7), 8(DQ6), 10(N/A) 14(DQ1) 2 3(1), 7(3), 8(4) 33 1, 3, 4, 9 3 2, 3(N/A), 4(DQ5), 5(3), 6(4), 7(5), 8(6), 9(N/A) 4 1, 2, 4(DQ1), 6(4), 7(5), 8(6) 6 4, 7, 11(DQ1) 5 3, 4, 7 6 (appendix) 1, 2 (similar to 2), 4 7 2, 7(DQ5), 9(7), 10(8) 8 7, 8, 13(N/A) 9 2, 5, 6, 8, 9 10 1, 3, 4, 5, 7 11 3, 7(6), 8(7), 12(10) 13 ------- 18 1 (a,b,c,d), 3, 4, 6(DQ2), 7(5) 16 4(DQ1), 5(4), 6(5mod), 9(6mod), 12(8)