David L - Wellesley College



WELLESLEY COLLEGE

Economics 101

Principles of Microeconomics, Spring 2009

David L. Lindauer Office Hours:

422 Pendleton East Tuesday, 4:15-5:30; Friday 12:45-2;

781-283-2159 and by appointment.

Economics 101, Principles of Microeconomics, is the introductory course in economics. The course is designed to teach you the basic tools of microeconomic analysis. Microeconomics is the branch of economics that deals with the interaction of households and firms in individual markets. Some of the issues we will study include how prices and output levels are determined, what happens when governments intervene in markets, when do markets “fail”, how do markets produce an “efficient” use of a society’s scarce resources and are market outcomes equitable. Learning “to think like an economist” should make you a more informed student, consumer, worker and voter.

Economics 101 does not assume any prior knowledge of economics. However, you must pass Wellesley’s Quantitative Reasoning Assessment to register for the course. No exceptions to this requirement will be made.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

One in-class hourly, covering Sections I-III of the syllabus, will be given on, or about, March 4. A second in-class hourly exam, covering Sections IV-VI, will be given on, or about, April 17. A final exam, covering the entire course, will be given as a self-scheduled exam during Final Exam Period. Each hourly exam counts for 20 percent of your course grade. The final exam counts for 40 percent. Weekly assignments, including problem sets and short essays, account for the remaining 20 percent of the course grade.

COURSE MEETINGS

Econ 101-04 meets on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 11:10-12:20. Please make every effort to arrive in class on time.

REQUIRED TEXT

N. Gregory Mankiw, Principles of Microeconomics, 5e (South-Western, Cengage Learning, 2008)

e-RESOURCES

Economics 101 has a dedicated course conference, ECON101-4-S09. Copies of the syllabus and assignments will be posted on the conference. Other articles and information will be posted as well. Students are expected to check the conference regularly.

Journal articles generally are available online – go to the Wellesley College Library’s Catalogue and search for the journal by its title. Follow the links to the online version of the journal. Some articles are available from the web with URLs indicated on the syllabus. Other items may be found in the e-reserves folder in the ECON101-4-S09 conference.

I. Introduction (February 3-10)

Mankiw, Chapters 1, 2 (+ Appendix)

A. Goolsbee, “Why People Hate Economists (and Why We Don’t Care),” (August 2006)

L. Summers, “Morning Prayers Address,” Appleton Chapel, Harvard University

(September 15, 2003);

II. Supply and Demand (February 11-17)

Mankiw, Chapter 4

K. Case, “The value of scalping,” The Boston Globe (1/21/2007)

M. Munger, “They Clapped: Can Price-Gouging Laws Prohibit Scarcity?” (1/8/2007);

D. Hemenway, "Economics of Childhood Immunizations," Economic Inquiry, Vol. 32

(July 1994) (e-reserves)

R. Freeman, “It’s Better Being an Economist (But Don’t Tell Anyone),” Journal of Economic Perspectives 13:3 (Summer 1999)

III. Ceilings, Floors and Taxes (February 18 - March 6)

Mankiw, Chapters 5, 6, 12

Economic Policy Institute, “Minimum Wage Issue Guide,” (August 2008);

J. Sabia and R. Burkhauser, “Good Intentions are Not Enough: Why Raising New York’s Minimum Wage is Long Overdue” (January 2008);

“Ways and Means: Harvard’s Wage Debate,” Harvard Magazine 104:2 (November-December 2001);

J. Gertner, “What is a Living Wage?” New York Times (1/15/2006)

Employment Policies Institute, “Santa Fe’s Living Wage and the Labor Market”

(September 2005);

IV. Market Efficiency and Market Failure (March 10-17)

Mankiw, Chapters 7, 8, 10, 11

Environmental Protection Agency, Clean Air Markets – Cap and Trade: “Cap and Trade: Acid Rain Program Basics” and “Cap and Trade: Acid Rain Program Results”; ()

G. Becker, “The Solution to Traffic Congestion,” The Becker-Posner Blog (Feb. 12, 2006);

I. Parry, “The Uneasy Case for Higher Gasoline Taxes,” Milken Review (December 2005);

“Schools Brief: State and Market,” The Economist (2/17/1996) (e-reserves)

J. Tierney, “A Tale of Two Fisheries,” New York Times (August 27, 2000)

V. The Theory of the Firm (March 18 – April 3)

Mankiw, Chapter 13

VI. Perfect Competition (April 7-17)

Mankiw, Chapters 14

B. Caplan, “The 4 Boneheaded Biases of Stupid Voters,” reasononline (October 2007);



L. Read, “I, Pencil” The Freeman (reprinted May 1996, first published 1958);



T. Buchholz, “The Second Coming of Adam Smith,” Chapter II, New Ideas from Dead Economists (New American Library: 1989), pp. 19-41 (e-reserves)

VII. Industrial Organization (April 22 – May 1)

Mankiw, Chapters 15, 16, 17

“Slackers or pace-setters?” The Economist (May 20, 2004)

J. Green, “Google’s Tar Pit,” The Atlantic (December 2007)

VIII. Consumer Behavior (May 5-6)

Mankiw, Chapter 21, 22 pp. 494-500

J. K. Galbraith, The Affluent Society (1958), Chapter X, Section III & IV, Chapter XI

(e-reserves)

F. Hayek, "The Non Sequitur of the Dependence Effect", Southern Economic Journal (1961)

(e-reserves)

N. Carlsson-Paige and D. Levin, "Saturday Morning Pushers: Where Do Consumer Preferences Come From?" in Dollars and Sense, Real World Micro (5th Edition) (e-reserves)

IX. Income Distribution and Poverty (May 8-13)

Mankiw, Chapter 20

C. Crook, “The Height of Inequality,” The Atlantic Monthly (September 2006)

P. Krugman, “For Richer,” New York Times (October 20, 2002)

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