ECON 3070 Intermediate Microeconomics Fall 2011 Instructor: Sheena Murray Office: ECON 307 Office Hours: Tue/ Thurs 10:00 – 11:00 and by appointment Email: [email protected] Website: CU Learn Class Time: T, R 12:30–1:45 Location: ECON 117 Required Text - Besanko and Braeutigam, “Microeconomics”, 4th Edition, Wiley (3rd edition is still fine). There is a study guide available to accompany the textbook. You may wish to purchase the study guide if you would like extra practice solving problems. But doing so is not required. If you choose not to purchase the text book one has been placed on reserve at Norlin for your reference. Course Overview Microeconomics is a branch of economics that studies how individuals, households, and firms make decisions to allocate limited resources, typically in markets where goods or services are being bought and sold. We will examine how these decisions and behaviors affect the supply and demand for goods and services, which determines prices and how prices, in turn, determine the supply and demand of goods and services. After successful completion of this course you will be able to: 1. Explain key microeconomic concepts and models, and describe how they can be used 2. Utilize mathematics and graphing to illustrate economic concepts and to determine market equilibriums and the effects of market intervention on the equilibriums. 3. Show what economic concepts and principles can be used in an economic analysis of current events. Prerequisites The prerequisites for this course are Economics Prerequisites: ECON 1000 or 2010 Mathematics Prerequisites: ECON 1078 & 1088 or MATH 1300 or MATH 1310 or MATH 1081 or MATH 1080 & 1090 & 1100 or APPM 1350 or equivalent It is assumed that every student has a working knowledge of calculus, and there will be no formal review of calculus techniques. As such, the mathematics prerequisites will be strictly enforced.Administrative Drops You must attend the first three lectures of the course to stay enrolled in the course. Administrative drops will be enforced to ensure students on the waitlist can enroll if individuals who are enrolled are not attending the course. Email Policy Please be considerate with your use of email. If you email me a substantive question about lectures, exams, or assignments I will most likely encourage you to come talk to me about it during my office hours. I reserve the right not to answer emails lacking appropriate salutation, grammar and punctuation. Emails asking for administrative information contained within this syllabus or available on the course website will not be answered. I am only responsible to respond to emails between the hours of 9:00 am and 5:00 pm Mon-Fri. My typical response time during the week is one or less days while my response time over the weekend may be much longer. Lecture Please review the material covered in the previous lecture before coming to class. Full participation in class activities is expected. I do not provide my lecture notes for any reason, please do not ask. If you miss a class, you should be able to get the notes from one of your classmates. You are encouraged to come to my office hours to discuss the material you missed, but you must first obtain and go over the notes. Respect for this Class and your Fellow Classmates Respect for this class and your classmates are necessary for an environment conducive to learning. With this in mind, chatting, early packing up and distracting behavior must be kept at a minimum. There is a zero tolerance policy- If you are disruptive to the course you will be asked to leave. Think ahead and be considerate to your classmates. If you must leave early please sit near the back of the class and towards an aisle so that your exiting does not disrupt other students. Laptop Policy There is to be no laptop usage in this class at any time, for any reason. The only exception to this rule is if disability services mandate that you must be allowed to use a laptop for note taking purposes. In this case, an official letter from disability services is required. Grading Your grade for this course will be based on two midterms, in class participation, homework, a writing assignment and a final exam. I cannot email you about your grades due to university and federal privacy laws; you must come into office hours to discuss them.Grade Calculation Your course grade will be calculated as follows: 20% (Midterm1) + 20% (Miderm2) + 10% (Writing Assignment) + 10% (Homework) + 10% (Participation) + 30% (Final exam) Grading Scale: Your Score Grade Your Score Grade 93-100% A 73-76% C 90-92% A- 68-72% C- 87-89% B+ 63-67% D 83-86% B 60-62% D- 80-82% B- ≤59% F 77-79% C+ Exams I will not give any early exams or make up exams. The only exception is for student athletes with scheduled events on the date of the exams. Please check into this immediately and let me know as soon as possible. I require a signed letter from your coach or the athletics department. There will be no makeup exams, dropped exams or early exams given for either an excused or unexcused absence. If you miss an exam for an excused absence, your final will be reweighted if you provide the necessary documentation. (i.e. if you miss one midterm your final will be worth 50%). The format of the exam will be multiple choice and short answer questions. Please bring a #2 pencil and a calculator to every exam. Cell phone & graphing calculators are not permitted. The use of a cell phone will never be permitted and if you bring a graphing calculator 5 points will be deducted from your overall exam score. Lastly, you will need your student ID number in order to correctly fill in your scantron and to access your grade through CUlearn. Midterm exams will not be cumulative, but the material builds upon itself, so it is important to understand each concept along the way. Any material covered in lecture and/or in the assigned readings will be fair game for the exams. The final exam is cumulative – this means you will be tested on the material from the entire semester. If you have three or more final exams scheduled for the same day and I am giving one of your 3rd or 4th exams you can reschedule your final exam if you would