ECO-212-B Microeconomics
M, W, F: 2:30 – 3:25 p.m.
Maxwell Center, Rm. #121
Spring Semester 2018
Professor: N. Snow Marion, IN
Home: (919) 698-2137 Office: (765) 677-2427
E-mail: nathanael.snow@indwes.edu
Office Hours: MTWRF, 3:30 – 5:30 p.m. Room 201-M, Maxwell Center (by appointment)
Primary Course Text: N. Gregory Mankiw, Principles of Microeconomics, 8th ed. South-Western Cengage Learning, 2018. https://www.cengage.com/c/principles-of-microeconomics-8e-mankiw
Supplemental Course Texts (required): Russell Roberts, The Price of Everything: A Parable of Possibility and Prosperity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008. www.invisibleheart.com
Stephen Landsburg, The Armchair Economist: Economics and Everyday Life, New York, NY: Free Press, 2012. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00120953U/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
YOU MAY SHARE BOOKS WITH CLASSMATES! Additional readings to be announced
Course Description: The description of human behavior within exchange relationships, the incentives faced by decision makers, and the institutional structures that affect those relations. Special emphasis on emergent price formation, exchange, scarcity, division of labor, firm behavior, demand and price elasticity, and profits and competition.
Course Objectives: Upon successful completion of this course, students should be able to do the following:
1. Explain why it is important to study economics
2. Demonstrate a knowledge of the concepts of exchange, scarcity (limited resources), opportunity cost (alternatives foregone), and subjective value
3. Justify self-interest as a robust assumption for describing human action in any economy
4. Distinguish between the concepts of absolute and comparative advantage
5. Describe the emergence of market prices and the role of supply and demand in the formation of prices and allocation of quantities of goods and services, including price elasticity of supply and demand
6. Explain the function of relative price ratios in communicating relevant information to appropriate agents within a market economy
7. Identify the unintended consequences of market interventions using the supply and demand model: rent ceilings, minimum wage laws, taxes, subsidies, and trade barriers
8. Explain basic microeconomic principles and define the basic terms common to the field of microeconomics: exchange, efficiency, utility, marginal costs, marginal benefits
9. Compare “market failure” explanations for out-of-equilibrium markets (including externalities, public goods, and common resources) to the role of entrepreneurs in discovering new exchange opportunities
10. Describe the various models of industrial organization within markets: perfect competition, monopoly, imperfect competition, and oligopoly/game theory
11. List and explain the factors of production
12. Explain the relationship between the productivity of labor and wage rates
13. Identify the variables which influence the distribution of income
14. Explain the various philosophies of income distribution: Benthamite Utilitarianism, Rawlsian Liberalism, Nozickian Libertarianism, and Buchanan’s Constitutional Political Economy
15. Explain the value and necessity of a free economy and individual responsibility
This course is:
1) an introductory-to-intermediate course in microeconomics, with
2) insights into business and social problems, and
3) a solid understanding of the laws of economics.
This course includes readings (textbook and supplementary), exams, web-based homework problem sets, and thorough class notes on lectures and discussion materials.
Class lecture and readings, as well as any topics covered in ancillary activities, are all subject to testing and assessment.
Attendance Policy
Due to the pace and depth of this course, students are expected and required to be in class. Participation in lectures and discussions will benefit students in understanding economics. Students will be allowed three (3) unexcused “courtesy absences” during this course. Each unexcused absence beyond these two will result in a two-percentage point reduction in the student’s final course grade. (For instance, if the student’s raw final grade is an 86%, but the student took five unexcused absences, the resulting final grade would be an 82%.) Attendance will be taken at each class session. There will be no exceptions to this policy. If you are involved in extracurricular university-sponsored activities and events that will require you to take an excused absence from class (i.e., athletics, University Chorale, etc.), please notify me in advance, and bring evidence of your involvement in the form of a note from your sponsoring professor.
Tardiness to class will also impact a student’s grade. A student will be considered tardy if arriving to class at any time after the official class start-time. Two (2) tardies count equivalent to one (1) absence, and, if accumulated, have the same impact on a student’s final grade as absences.
Please be to class on time.
Classes missed require make-up assignments equivalent to the learning experience of the missed class session. Unless otherwise negotiated with the instructor, make-up assignments will involve a written report on research of selected articles and/or books, or textbook end-of-chapter “problems and applications” questions. Make-up work will be assigned at the discretion of the instructor and on a case-by-case basis, and, when assigned, will be due the class session following the student’s return. If you anticipate being absent, please notify me in advance to negotiate make-up work.
Any assignments turned in after the scheduled due date will lose points per day according to the following schedule: 1 day—5 points, 2 days—15 points, 3 days—30 points, 4 days—50 points, 5 days—75 points, more than 5 days—no credit. (Can you explain the marginal principle in this rule?)
There will be three (3) exams administered during this course. Exams #1 and #2 (200 points each) consist of a combination of multiple-choice, graphs, and essay questions. Multiple-choice and graph questions cover lecture and textbook content. Essay questions cover supplemental readings. The final exam (20 points) will be comprehensive. (Multiple choice and graphs only, no essay on the final exam).
Summary of exams
· Exam #1: Wednesday, February 21; multiple-choice, graphs, and essay questions including some on supplemental readings – 200 points
· Exam #2: Friday, April 6; multiple-choice, graphs, and essay questions including some on supplemental readings – 200 points
· Exam #3 (final exam): (see final exam schedule for times); 100 multiple-choice questions and graphs (comprehensive) – 300 points
Sapling Learning Online Problem Sets/Homework (250 points)
Each student will complete and submit periodic (weekly or semi-weekly) on-line problem sets pertaining to the assigned textbook readings from Gwartney, Stroup, Sobel, & Macpherson, Macroeconomics: Private and Public Choice, 16th ed. Register for an account with the Sapling Learning online at http://saplinglearning.com. The Sapling website is interactive, educational, and entertaining. The problem sets provide students with easy course points relative to those earned through exams. Register for Sapling within 24 hours after the first class session.
All Sapling assignments and due dates are listed on the website. No exceptions to these due dates. The student is responsible for access to a computer and the website, completion of assignments, and making sure that assignments are properly submitted. NO exceptions will be made for crashed hard drives, network outages, lack of computer terminal availability, electrical storms, or any other possible variable or event. I do not respond to issues pertaining to Sapling on an assignment’s due date. You must complete each assignment by the appropriate deadline. Once the due date has passed on an assignment, it will be impossible for you to access that homework set again, and the points lost are beyond the control of the instructor to change or adjust.
Short Essay on Roberts (50 points)
This short essay (1000 words) gives the student experience writing a short responsive essay. The student will be required to respond to a prompt assigned Friday, April 6, at the second exam. Essays submitted in hard copy at the last class meeting and electronically to Assignment Dropbox in a Microsoft Word compatible document by that class meeting time.
All electronic submissions will conform to the following format. 5 percentage points will be deducted for failure to conform:
“ECO212S18_ Assignment Title_Your Last Name_Your First Initial”
Exam #1: 200 points
Exam #2: 200 points
Final Exam: 300 points
Short Essay on Roberts 50 points
Sapling problem sets: 250 points
Total: 1000 points
Grades will be based upon points earned in completing course assignments (see above for point values for each assignment). The points-based grading scale that equates to the above point values will be as follows:
A 950-1000 points (95-100%)
A– 920-949 points (92-94.9%)
B+ 890-919 points (89-91.9%)
B 850-889 points (85-88.9%)
B– 820-849 points (82-84.9%)
C+ 790-819 points (79-81.9%)
C 750-789 points (75-78.9%)
C– 720-749 points (72-74.9%)
D+ 690-719 points (69-71.9%)
D 650-689 points (65-68.9%)
F less than 650 points (64.9% and below)
Laptop computer and Mobile device policy
Absolutely no laptop computers permitted in use at any time in the classroom. Period. No exceptions. Students found in violation of this policy will lose two percentage points per occurrence from their final course grade.
If a student’s mobile device disrupts class that student will lose two percentage points per occurrence from the final course grade. Additionally, each of that student’s neighbors will also be penalized one percentage point from the final course grade. Students are encouraged to monitor one another. (Can you explain the incentives generated by this rule?)
Students may bring a device to record lectures, and are encouraged to do so. Hearing an idea for a second time embeds it much deeper into one’s memory. Also, you can repeat difficult parts as many times as necessary, and identify what parts you are not understanding better to bring to me for clarification.
If you have special needs or suffer from a disability:
If you need course adaptations or accommodations because of a disability please make an appointment with the Center for Student Success (CSS) – Second Floor of the Student Center (Phone x2257) as soon as possible. If you have already received an Academic Adjustment Letter from CSS, have emergency medical information to share with me, or if you need special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please make an appointment with me as soon as possible.
Academic Honesty and Integrity Policy
Academic dishonesty is inconsistent with scholarship and the pursuit of knowledge and Christian character. Thus, Indiana Wesleyan University expects students to be honest in all academic work. Cheating, plagiarism, or falsification of records will result in appropriate academic sanctions as specified by the IWU policy as stated in the catalog: http://www.indwes.edu/catalog/
Students are expected to exhibit honesty in the classroom, in homework and on quizzes and tests.
Cheating is defined as the use or attempted use of unauthorized materials or receiving unauthorized assistance or communication during any academic exercise. Examples of cheating include:
1. Submitting work for academic evaluation that is not the student's own.
2. Copying answers from another student during an examination.
3. Using prepared notes or materials during an examination.
4. Permitting another student to copy one's work.
5. Plagiarism.
6. Falsification.
7. Other misrepresentations of academic achievement submitted for evaluation or a grade.
Plagiarism is defined as “the false assumption of authorship; the wrongful act of taking the product of another person's mind and presenting it as one's own” (A. Lindey, 2006, Plagiarism and Originality). The Prentice Hall Reference Guide (2006) indicates, “To plagiarize is to include someone else's writing, information, or idea in a paper and fail to acknowledge what you took by indicating whose work it is” (p. 292). In other words, it is not giving credit where credit is due. Plagiarism is both a moral and ethical offense and sometimes a legal one. Examples of plagiarism include:
1. Copying another person's actual words without the use of quotation marks, source citation, or footnotes.
2. Presenting another person's ideas or theories in your own words without citing the source.
3. Failing to acknowledge contribution and collaboration from others.
4. Using information that is not common knowledge without citing the source.
5. Submitting downloaded papers or parts of papers, “cutting and pasting,” or paraphrasing or copying information from Internet sources without proper acknowledgement of a source.
Course Structure (subject to some flexibility)
Course Philosophy: memorize!
An exchange is an exchange is an exchange. -James Buchanan
Wisdom is the principle thing; Therefore get wisdom: And with all your getting, Get understanding -Proverbs 4:7
Political writers have established it as a maxim that, in contriving any system of government, and fixing the several checks and controls of the constitution, every man ought to be supposed a knave, and to have no other end, in all his actions, than private interest. -David Hume
A policeman sees a drunk man searching for something under a streetlight and asks what the drunk has lost. He says he lost his keys and they both look under the streetlight together. After a few minutes the policeman asks if he is sure he lost them here, and the drunk replies, no, and that he lost them in the park. The policeman asks why he is searching here, and the drunk replies, “this is where the light is.” -Old joke, retold by David Friedman
Economics is primarily useful, both to the student and to the political leader, as a prophylactic against popular fallacies. -Henry Simons
The good work is the blessing.
All hard work brings a profit, But mere talk leads only to poverty -Proverbs 14:23
There is nothing more practical than a good theory. -Karl Popper
Economics, as a branch of the more general theory of human action, deals with all human actions, i.e., with man's purposive aiming at the attainment of ends chosen, whatever these ends may be. -Ludwig von Mises
Given the principle of freedom, as active freedom of association, the notion of scientific control of society is a palpable contradiction.…In a democracy, the notion of control is not merely unethical, it is excluded, ipso fact… When a man or group asks for power to do good, my impulse is to…cancel the last three words, leaving simply “I want power”; that is easy to believe. -Frank Knight
He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side; if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion. The rational position for him would be suspension of judgment, and unless he contents himself with that, he is either led by authority, or adopts, like the generality of the world, the side to which he feels most inclination. Nor is it enough that he should hear the arguments of adversaries from his own teachers, presented as they state them, and accompanied by what they offer as refutations. That is not the way to do justice to the arguments, or bring them into real contact with his own mind. He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them; who defend them in earnest, and do their very utmost for them. He must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form; he must feel the whole force of the difficulty which the true view of the subject has to encounter and dispose of; else he will never really possess himself of the portion of truth which meets and removes that difficulty. - J.S. Mill
"When you SERVE in the marketplace your customers give you Certificates of Appreciation with president’s faces on them" -Dave Ramsey