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Intermediate Microeconomic TheoryEcon 100B Summer 2011 (Session
B)
MWF 11-12:20, PSYCH 1924Instructor:
Julian NeiraOffice Hours: NH 2041, MW 9 10am
Course Homepage:
http://www.econ.ucsb.edu/~neira/econ100b.htmEmail:[email protected].
I try to answer to all emails within 24 hours. Please include
Econ100B in the subject line to make sure your email doesnt end up
in the spam folder. Teaching AssistantReynaldo VazquezEmail:
[email protected]: NH 2053Office Hours: Tuesdays 12-2pm
PrerequisitesEcon 100A, Math 34A-B and PSTAT 5E are required. The
course makes extensive use ofalgebra, graphs, and simple calculus.
To succeed in this class you should feel comfortable
simplifying algebraic expressions, solving linear equations,
solving systems of two equations andtwo unknowns, and taking basic
derivatives. Course OverviewThe course takes off where Econ 100A
left off. In Econ 100A you learned the theory ofindividual
consumption and production. In this class we will use this
knowledge to study markets, that is, the interaction between
consumption and production decisions. We will study how markets
work and some situations of how/when/why they fail, with an
emphasis on strategic behavior. The goal of the course is to train
your ability to formalize intuition by formulating problems in a
rigorous manner. For this we will make use of simple models and
mathematical analysis. This is an important skill in economics.
Theories that cannot be embodied in models often appear profound
for reasons of obscurity. When the arguments are seldom
mathematized, one grows suspicious that lengthy deductive chains
are not really deductions from the explicit premise. Class
MaterialIntermediate Microeconomics (8th Ed) by Hal Varian
(required)Workouts in Intermediate Microeconomics (8th Ed) by
Bergstrom and Varian (recommended) You may prefer to use the
(cheaper) 7th edition of both books. The chapters we will cover
are
virtually identical from the 7th to the 8th edition.
There are two copies of the eighth edition of the textbook and
the workouts on reserve in thelibrary.
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Exams & Grading Quizzes (3) 5% Exams:
Midterm 1: August 12, in class - 30% Midterm 2: August 24, in
class - 30% Final: September 9, in class - 35%
Classes during summer session go at a particular fast pace as
there is an exam about every fourlectures. You should work on class
material (assigned readings, workout problems) almost on a
daily basis in order to keep up with the class. In order to give
you an incentive to stay up to date,there will be a 10-minute quiz
during your TA section every other week (the weeks when you
dont have an exam) starting on the first week, for a total of 3
quizzes. The quizzes are onlyworth a total of 5% of your grade. You
should approach the quizzes as an opportunity to test
your knowledge and get a feeling of how well prepared you are
for the exam. The exams will be closed book and will consist of
multiple choice questions. For each exam
please bring a large (pink) scantron sheet, a pencil, and a
simple calculator. No sophisticatedcalculators (graphing
calculators, cell phones, computers, combinations thereof) are
permitted. There will be no make-up exams or quizzes. If you miss a
quiz, you get a 0 on the quiz noexceptions. If you miss the first
midterm then the second midterm counts double. If you miss the
second midterm then the final is worth 65% of your grade. You
may not miss both midterms.There will not be a make-up final exam
under any circumstances, so please clear your schedule
for the final exam date. If you know that you cannot make it to
the final exam date, pleaseconsider taking this course at another
time. Please be aware that the last day to drop the class
with refund is August 5th and the final day to drop the class is
August 16th. The final iscumulative. Your grade will be given
according to the regular point scale, that is, A+: 100%-97%, A:
97-93,A-:9390, B+: 9087, B: 87-83, B-:8380, C+: 8077, C: 77-73,
C-:7370, D+:7067, D:67-63,
D-:6360, F: 60 and under. I do not curve grades down, only up.
Namely, if the whole classearns an A I will give the whole class an
A. If the average/median grade is lower than B-/C+ then
a curve will be applied so that the average grade is B-/C+. If
the average grade is greater than B-/C+, the grades will not be
curved. The curve will be applied to the final grade. How To Do
Well In The ClassPractice, practice, practice. The way to do well
in the class is to attempt as many problems aspossible. I would
recommend to study in the following order: read the chapter before
lecture,
attempt the suggested Workout problems for each chapter, then
try the quizzes at the back of theWorkouts book, and when posted,
do the additional practice problems posted on the class
website. The workouts are, in my opinion, an excellent resource
and the first place to start asthey walk you slowly through each
step of the problem. Often the easiest way to understand how
to tackle a problem is by visualizing it, i.e. graphing it, and
this is exactly what the Workouts willtrain you how to do. I will
post on the class website the workout problems that are relevant
for
the material we are covering. Answers to the even-number Workout
problems are on the back of
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the book. If you want the answers to the odd-number problems,
feel free to copy them from theinstructors manual during the
instructors or the TAs office hours. ScheduleDate Topic Chapter
1 August Intro/Review100A
3 Consumer'sSurplus 14
5 MarketDemand 15
8 Equilibrium 16
10 Equilibrium 16
12 Midterm1 Covers14,15,1615 Monopoly 24
17 Monopoly/MonopolyBehavior 24/25
19 MonopolyBehavior 25
22 Oligopoly 27
24 Midterm2 Covers24,25,27
26 GameTheory 28
29 GameApplications 29
31 September GameApp/AssymetricInfo 29/37
2 AssymetricInformation 37
5 LaborDay-NoClass7 Review
9 Final Cumulative
Thisscheduleissubjecttochangeatanytime.However,theExamdateswillnotchangefromthose
listedinthisschedule.
