CATAWBA COLLEGE



CATAWBA COLLEGE

Ketner School of Business

Econ 1902----Principles of Economics II – Microeconomics

General Course Syllabus

Spring Semester 2006

General Information

Instructor: Dr. James Wesley Slate

Associate Professor of Economics

Prerequisites: None

Textbook: Microeconomics, 7e. Author; Roger A. Arnold

Text website: Arnold.

Instructor office: Ketner 318

Instructor extension: 4407

Instructor email: jwslate@catawba.edu

Office Hours: M 1-3p, T 10-11a, W 8-10a & 1-3p

R 10-11a, F 8-10a

Course Assessment

Grading Scale A = 99-92, A- = 91-90, B+ = 89-88, B = 87-82, B- = 81-80

C+ = 79-78, C = 77-72, C- = 71-70, D+ = 69-68, D = 67-62

D- = 61-60, F < 60

Weights 30% -> Test Average (12 tests)

25% -> Midterm Examination

25% -> Final Examination

20% -> Research Subject + Essay or

Term Paper on Cooperation & Competition

Honor Code

All Catawba College students are expected to complete their studies, assignments, and classes with the utmost integrity. The honor code is set forth as follows.

As a member of the Catawba College community, I will practice academic honesty, communicate truthfully, and show respect for the rights and property of others. I will also encourage others in the community to behave honorably.

The Honor Code does not condone dishonorable actions within any sector of Catawba College. Such actions include academic dishonesty as well as social disrespect and any action harmful to the Catawba College community and its members. Violations of the law are also violations of the Honor Code. The Honor Code applies to students, faculty, administrators, and staff members.

The Course of Study

The following chapters from your textbook will be covered during the course.

C. Title

1) What Economics is About

2) Economic Activities: Producing & Trading

3) Supply & Demand: Theory

4) Supply & Demand: Applications

5) Elasticity

6) Consumer Choice: Maximizing Utility & Behavioral Economics

7) The Firm

8) Production & Costs

9) Perfect Competition

10) Monopoly

11) Imperfect Competition (Oligopoly, et al)

12) Government & Product Markets: Antitrust & Regulation

15) The Distribution of Income & Poverty

17) Market Failure: Externalities, Public Goods, & Asymmetric Information

19) International Trade

20) International Finance

Course Structure & Pace

We will generally use Mondays as lecture time and Wednesdays as lecture & lab time. Fridays are Test Day. Test Day will consist of a short review, the test, and then the grading and review of the test. Tests will be solely objective-multiple-choice and will be based on the primary chapter covered during the week.

Writing Assignment (20% of the grade)

Students have the following options available for completing the writing assignment:

1) Students may participate in a research program involving a virtual RPG environment and complete a 1200-1500 word essay that addresses their experience in the RPG in terms of cooperation and competition. Additional information is forthcoming under a separate cover.

2) Students may complete a traditional research paper. The subject will focus primarily on competition and cooperation but must be approved by Dr. Slate. The body of this paper must be between 1700-2000 words. Additional information is forthcoming under a separate cover.

Grade Penalties

Attendance will be kept for this course. Each student is permitted to miss two classes without penalty. Thereafter, each absence will result in 4 points deducted from your final grade.

The following also effects participation:

Tardy: Each tardy day equals ½ an absence.

Leaving class: Equals one tardy day.

Sleeping in class: Equals one day of absence

The instructor also reserves the right to deduct points for any additional behavior that demonstrates disrespect, in the opinion of the instructor, for the class environment. This might include, as an example, excessive non-essential chatting during the lecture or during a class discussion; or, as an example, failure to adequately participate during in-class assignments; or, as an example, failure to complete an assigned homework problem, etc.

To keep it simple, please attend class; come on time; stay awake; do your work; and respect all others in the class at all times of the class.

Make-Up Work

1) Tests may not be made-up. Please see item two regarding “extenuating circumstances” below.

2) You have two “free” absence days. Thereafter, points are deducted regardless of the reason you are absent, unless the absence falls within the “extenuating circumstances” listed in the college catalog. These are severe personal illness, death in your immediate family, or participation in an activity that represents the College and is announced in advance by the Dean of Students.

3) Only documented excuses permit the make-up of missed examinations or tests. If something precludes you from attending either exam or any test, you MUST supply a documented excuse to make up the work.

Test & Exam Schedule

Test Chapter(s) Day Date

1 1, 2 (basics) Friday Jan 20

2 3, (4) (markets) Friday Jan 27

3 5 (elasticity) Friday Feb 03

4 6 (Utility Theory) Friday Feb 10

5 8 (7) Production Friday Feb 17

6 9 (Competition) Friday Feb 24

MIDTERM EXAMINATION WEEK

Review March Feb 27

Exam March March 01---Midterm Exam

Post Exam Review March March 03 ---pickup results & review

Test Chapter(s) Day Date

7 10 (monopoly) Friday Mar 17

8 11 (imp comp) Friday Mar 24

9 12 (antitrust US) Friday Mar 31

10 15 (poverty) Friday Apr 07

11 17 (mkt failure) Friday Apr 21

12 19+20 (int econ) Friday Apr 28

Essays or Term Paper is due on April 28.

FINAL EXAM

10am Class May 3rd, 11:30a-2:30p

11am Class May 8th, 11:30a-2:30p

Student Outcomes:

Learning Outcomes: Students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate an understanding of the basic vocabulary of the economics discipline.

2. Demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between production, trade, and specialization in a modern developed economy.

3. Demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between scarcity, choice, and opportunity cost.

4. Demonstrate an understanding of the economic concept of market equilibrium.

5 Use the Supply and Demand model of economics to predict changes in equilibrium prices and quantities.

6. Use and understand common measures of market reaction including the Elasticity of Supply and Elasticity of Demand measures.

7 Demonstrate an understanding of basic behavioral economics including consumer choice.

8. Demonstrate an understanding of the theory of the firm including long-run and short-run cost theorems.

9. Demonstrate an understanding of various product market structures including Perfect Competition, Monopolistic Competition, Oligopoly, and Monopoly.

10. Demonstrate an understanding of the role of the Federal Government in the product markets of the USA including basic antitrust legislation and enforcement issues.

11. Use and understand common measures of income distribution and poverty within the developed and less developed economies.

12. Demonstrate an understanding of market failure including monopoly as a market failure, externalities as market failures, public goods as market failures, and the relationship of asymmetric information with the idea of market failure.

13. Demonstrate an understanding of international trade theory including the theory of comparative advantage.

14. Use and understand common measures of the international economy including the balance of payments accounting system and the foreign exchange pricing system.

General Education Objectives, Social and Behavioral Sciences.

Upon completion of the course, the students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate that they understand the basic information of a Social and Behavioral Science discipline. This is accomplished within the Learning Outcomes framework described above.

2. Discuss the methods used by Social and Behavioral Sciences in the study of human behavior.

3. Recognize different approaches used by a Social and Behavioral Science discipline.

4. Distinguish between the Social and Behavioral Science perspective and other points-of-view in understanding human behavior

Suggested Reading List

These should be read if you wish to further investigate this field of study.

Encyclopedic Treatments

The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002

History of Economic Thought by Harry Landreth & David Colander

Classics

The Theory of Moral Sentiment by Adam Smith

The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

An Essay on the Principle of Population by Thomas Malthus

On Liberty by John Stuart Mill

Principles of Political Economy by John Stuart Mill

Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx

Das Kapital by Karl Marx

Theory of the Leisure Class by Thorstein Veblen

Principles of Economics by Alfred Marshall

The General Theory by John Maynard Keynes

The Great Transformation by Karl Polanyi

The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich A. Hayek

Capitalism, Socialism, & Democracy by Joseph Schumpeter

Human Action by Ludwig Von Mises

Not Yet Classic (

On Economic Inequality by Amartya Sen

The Limits of Liberty by James M. Buchanan, Jr

Economic Institutions of Capitalism by Oliver Williamson

The Economic Approach to Human Behavior by Gary S Becker

Monetary History of the United States 1867-1960 by Milton Friedman

Growth Theory: An Exposition by Robert M. Solow

Social Choice and Individual Values by Kenneth J. Arrow

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