ECON 2106-009 (CRN 13199)

 

PRINCIPLES OF MICROECONOMICS

 

Semester: Spring 2005

 

Time/Place: 11:00am-12:15pm TR, Aderhold Learning Center 24

 

Instructor: Dr. Shelby Frost

 

Office: Andrew Young School of Policy Studies (AYSPS), room 530 (The new AYSPS building is located at intersection of Marietta and Peachtree Streets; my office is on the 5th floor – take a right off the elevators.)

 

Office Hours: 2:30-3:30pm TR; and/or by appointment

 

Office Phone: 404-651-4224 (email is my preferred method of communication)

 

Email Address: sfrost@gsu.edu (or use the email feature in WebCT)

 

Graduate Teaching Assistant: Asmaa El-Ganainy

  

Office: AYSPS 535C

 

Office Hours: 12:00-1:00pm TR and/or by appointment

 

Office Phone: 404-651-3705

 

Email Address: prcaae@langate.gsu.edu (or use the email feature in WebCT)

 

Prerequisite: Math 1111 or equivalent (basic college algebra – please see note # 8 below) 

 

Text/Materials: Economics,  (or Microeconomics), 5th edition, by David Colander is required.  The textbook website is http://www.mhhe.com/economics/colander5/.  Student Study Guide is optional.  A scientific calculator is recommended.  Access to a computer and the internet is required – there are many computer labs available on campus – for information about locations and hours see  http://www.gsu.edu/~wwwets/labsclassrooms/computerlabs/locations/index.html .

 

We will be using WebCT CE for this course, which can be found at the following URL: http://webct.gsu.edu/.  It is a password-protected environment where you can monitor your grades, easily communicate with me and your classmates, and find many useful materials throughout the semester.  Please check the WebCT site at least once between each class meeting for announcements, etc.  To logon to the system, you need your WebCT ID and your initial password – see Getting Started with WebCT if you have never used WebCT before (otherwise, there should be a link to this course on your existing Vista My WebCT page).  If you have trouble getting into the WebCT site with your own user ID and password, use fs_frosts as the user ID and student as the password (this is my “fake student” account – please do NOT change the password for this account), and please send me an email to let me know that you cannot access the WebCT site so I can try to help you access it.  There will be various items available through the internet throughout the semester. You should become familiar with a web browser (such as Netscape or Internet Explorer) and you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader for some items; the reader is available free of charge at the following URL: http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html.  There is a link to the Adobe site on the links organizer page of the WebCT site.  If you have not already done so, I highly recommend that you install it on your machine; it should already be installed on any machine you use in a computer lab on campus.

 

Learning Objectives for ECON 2106:

  1. The student should be able to define the concept of Scarcity.
  2. The student should be able to define Opportunity Costs, demonstrate how they affect economic decisions, and identify these costs in a given economic decision.
  3. The student should be able to explain and apply the concepts of Marginal Benefits and Marginal Costs to determine optimal economic decisions for both consumers and firms.
  4. The student should be able to describe the Benefit-Cost Principle (e.g., take an action as long as the marginal benefits are greater than the marginal costs), and should be able to apply the principle in a given economic decision.
  5. The student should be able to accurately explain the way in which economists use the following adjectives and the relationships among them: marginal, average, total, fixed, variable, and sunk.  The student should also be able to determine in a given economic decision which costs and benefits are relevant (e.g., marginal) and which are not (e.g., sunk).
  6. The student should be able to recognize and interpret a Demand Curve and a Supply Curve, and should be able to identify the underlying determinants of each.
  7. The student should be able to describe the concepts of Excess Demand, Excess Supply and Equilibrium Quantities and Prices, and should be able to predict changes in each as a result of changes in the underlying determinants of market demand and supply or government intervention.
  8. The student should be able to differentiate between a Change in Demand (Supply) and a Change in the Quantity Demanded (Supplied).
  9. The student should be able to define the general concept of Elasticity for different variables in the demand or supply function (e.g. own, cross, income, etc.), and should be able to describe the effect of a given elasticity on economic outcomes (e.g., revenues, tax burden, policy choices, etc.).
  10. The student should be able to identify the differences between a perfectly competitive market and an imperfectly competitive market and the implications of each for economic outcomes.

Grading/Make-up Policy: This semester, I will assign grades based upon how much money you earn in this class (please see note #1 below).  The more money you earn, the higher the grade you can afford.  The following scale will be used to assign grades:

 

Course Grade

Money Earned

A

$900,000 or more

B

$800,000 to $899,999

C

$700,000 to $799,999

D

$600,000 to $699,999

F

$599,999 or less

 

How to earn money:  The most money can be earned from exams; there will be three one-hour unit exams (with 40 multiple-choice questions each) and a comprehensive two-hour final exam (with 75 multiple-choice questions), each worth a maximum $250,000.  Note that there is a total of $1,000,000 available from exam grades alone, so it is possible for you to afford any grade that you “need” or want, if you perform well enough on the exams.  However, as an economist, I believe that people respond to incentives, so there will be other opportunities to earn extra income, related to activities that I believe are associated with your better comprehension of the material. There is a spreadsheet in WebCT that will allow you to easily calculate your grade so that you will always know where you stand in the class and what you need to do to earn enough income for the grade that you want.  The following table can be used to get an idea of most of the money that may be earned this semester. 

 

Your Earnings:

Possible

Date

exam 1

$   250,000

Tuesday, February 8th

exam 2

$   250,000

Thursday, March 3rd

exam 3

$   250,000

Tuesday, April 19th

final exam

$   250,000

Thursday, May 5th

improvement bonus*

$           -

 

total exam earnings

$1,000,000

 

 

 

 

total extra credit earnings**

$     30,000

 

total earnings

$1,030,000

 

*If your final exam earnings are better than your lowest unit exam earnings, then you earn the difference between your final exam earnings and your lowest unit exam earnings (called an improvement bonus).  This is mathematically equivalent to having your final exam earnings replace your lowest unit exam earnings (when the final exam earnings are the higher of the two).

** The total extra credit earnings will most likely increase some from the $30,000 listed in this table, but I will reveal to you on the first day of class how you may be able to earn an extra $30,000 in total from various activities throughout the semester.  There may be other opportunities that arise throughout the semester too, so $30,000 is the minimum amount of extra income that can be earned.

 

More about exams:  All exams will consist of multiple-choice questions, and I will provide you with a scantron to submit your answers.  When you finish your exam, you will turn in the scantron only and keep the questions sheet for yourself.  Later that day, I will post the answers to the exam in WebCT so you can grade your own exam (assuming you mark your answers on your questions sheet before you leave the exam).  In a few days, the official scores from the testing center will be posted in WebCT so that you can verify that your grade is correct.  If you suspect that there is an error in your exam grade, please send me an email ASAP so that we can determine the problem and get it corrected right away.  There is a folder in WebCT with all of my old ECON 2106 exams so you can get an idea of what to expect on your exams (this is also a good way to study for your exams).  Each unit exam will consist of 40 multiple-choice questions; the final exam will consist of 75 questions.  Each exam is worth a maximum of $250,000.  The spreadsheet in WebCT will help you calculate your earnings on any given exam based on the number of questions you got correct.  There will be absolutely NO MAKE-UP EXAMS!  If you miss an exam, then you will earn $0 for that exam.  While it is difficult to recover from missing an exam, it is possible to replace a missed unit exam (or any other terrible exam earnings) by taking the final exam and earning an improvement bonus.  Note that you do not earn an improvement bonus if you do not take the final exam.  All exam dates (including the final exam) are posted on the calendar in WebCT, as well as in the table above.  My advice to you is to clear your calendar for those four days this semester and plan to be in class to take all exams – and allow yourself plenty of time to prepare for them so that you can earn the maximum income possible from them. 

 

Attendance Policy:  Attendance will be taken daily (please see note #6 below).  Attendance does not factor directly into your grade, but attending class is important and that is why I take roll everyday.  If you miss class, you are responsible for finding out what you missed.  Note that some opportunities to earn extra income will require your presence in class – missed opportunities for extra income CANNOT be made up!  Consult the WebCT calendar to see what we are scheduled to cover each day.  It represents a tentative course outline, but we will try to stick to it as closely as possible (please see note #7 below).  Please make note of the exam dates! 

 

Notes:

  1. I am not really paying you money; this is just for illustrative purposes.  When I say “money”, I mean hypothetical classroom dollars, which are used to assign your grade in the course.
  2. If you require special accommodations for exams (e.g., "time and a half"), you MUST provide documentation from GSU Disability Services and make arrangements with me PRIOR to the exam dates.
  3. Incompletes will only be given to students who are PASSING the course, and even then, only in very special circumstances.  In the case where an incomplete is awarded, it MUST be removed by the end of the NEXT term that the student is enrolled (and within TWO terms regardless of whether or not the student is enrolled) or it will automatically turn into an F.
  4. Students who withdraw after the midpoint of each term will not be eligible for a "W" except in cases of hardship. A student who withdraws after the midpoint of the term is assigned a grade of "WF," except in those cases in which (1) hardship status is determined by the Office of the Dean of Students because of emergency employment, or health reasons, and (2) the student is doing passing work, as determined by the student's instructor(s).
  5. All students are responsible for knowing and adhering to GSU’s Policy on Academic Honesty as published in On Campus: The Undergraduate Co-Curricular Affairs Handbook.
  6. Effective Fall 2001, all instructors must, on a date after the mid-point of the course (to be set by the Provost),
    1. Give a WF to all those students who are on their rolls, but no longer taking the class; and
    2. Report the last day the student attended or turned in an assignment.
  7. This course syllabus provides a general plan for the course; deviations may be necessary.
  8. Please see the math worksheet provided in the WebCT site to see if you possess the math skills required to succeed in this course.  If you have not had college algebra, it has been a long time since you took it (and you don’t remember anything you learned), or you performed poorly in it, you might want to take a refresher math course before attempting this economics course.  If you have trouble with the math worksheet, please see me about whether or not you should attempt this course at this time.
  9. This syllabus is for this particular section of ECON 2106 only.  See the GSU Economics Department generic syllabus for ECON 2106 at http://www.gsu.edu/~wwwsps/academics/courses/econ2106_syllabus.htm.