Economics 401: Intermediate Microeconomics, fall 2012
Instructor: Prof. Jeremy A. Sandford
Office hour: TR 3-4pm, 335L B&E, or by appointment
Lecture:
12:30-1:45pm TH, BE 313
Exam dates:
Tuesday, September 25 and Thursday, October 25, in class
Final exam
date: Thursday, December 13, 10:30am-12:30pm
Required texts: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, Microeconomics, Pearson/Prentice Hall, Hellman and Alper, Economics of Crime, Theory and Practice, Pearson Custom Publishing
Homework 1, answers
Homework 2, answers
Homework 3, answers
Homework 4, answers
Homework 5, answers
Homework 6, not collected
(final exam prep)
Note: For some, but not all, of the classes, I will be posting lecture notes written by another economist. These are not required readings, and should not be presumed to be comprehensive, but they may complement your reading of the textbook and attendance at my lectures.
Schedule
Thursday, August 23: Consumer incentives I: budget
constraints and indifference curves
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 3
Lecture notes 1
Tuesday, August 28: Consumer incentives II: indifference
curves
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 3
Lecture notes 2
Thursday, Auguest 30: Consumer incentives III: utility
maximization
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 3
Lecture notes 2
Tuesday, September 4: Consumer incentives IV: utility
functions, perfect substitutes/complements, marginal utility analysis
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 3
Lecture notes 2
Thursday, September 6: Expected utility functions and risk
attitudes
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 5
Lecture notes 3
Tuesday, September 11: Expected utility functions II.
Insurance markets
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 5
Lecture notes 3
Thursday, September 13: Firms, production functions,
short-run vs. long-run production, isoquants
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 6
Lecture notes 4
Tuesday, September 18: Cost functions, profit
maximization
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 7
Lecture notes 5
Thursday, September 20: Exam review
Tuesday, September 25: Midterm 1 (with
answers)
grade distribution
Thursday, September 27: Profit maximization and market
structure, perfectly competitive firms
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 8
Lecture notes 6
Tuesday, October 2: Long-run adjustment in the
competitive model, introduction to monopoly
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 10
Lecture notes 7
Thursday, October 4: Monopoly
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 10
Lecture notes 7
Tuesday, October 9: Costs and benefits of a monopolistic
market structure, optimal patent strength
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 10
Richard Posner, "Why there are
too many patents in America"
Steve Jobs was a great artist
Lecture notes 7
Thursday, October 11: Introduction to game theory
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 13
Lecture notes 8
Tuesday, October 16: Nash equilibrium and mixed strategies
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 13
Lecture notes 8
Thursday, October 18: sequential games and backward
induction
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 13
Lecture notes 9
Tuesday, October 23: Midterm II review
Thursday, October 25: Midterm II (with answers)
grade distribution
Tuesday, October 30: Asymmetric information and market
collapse
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 17.1
The
market for "Lemons" by George Akerlof (link may require you to be on
campus)
Lecture notes 10
Thursday, November 1: Education as a signal
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, section 17.2
Job market
signaling, by Michael Spence (link may require you to be on campus)
Lecture notes 10
Tuesday, November 6: No class (please go vote)
Thursday, November 8: Moral hazard, efficiency wages
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 17.3-17.6
Lecture notes 11
Tuesday, November 13: Public goods
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 18
Lecture notes 12
Thursday, November 15: Economics of crime: measuring crime,
crime trends of last 50 years
reading: Hellman and Alper, chapter 1
Tuesday, November 20: No class (Thanksgiving break)
Thursday, November 22: No class (Thanksgiving break)
Tuesday, November 27: Measuring the economic impact of crime
reading: Hellman and Alper, chapter 2
Anderson, D., 1999, The aggregate burden of crime, The Journal of Law and
Economics, 42.2, pp.611-642
Thursday, November 29: A simple economic model of criminal
behavior
reading: Hellman and Alper, chapter 3
Tuesday, December 4: Optimal allocation of criminal justice
resources
reading: Hellman and Alper, chapter 4
Thursday, December 6: crimes without victims
reading: Hellman and Alper, chapter 7
Thursday, December 13, 10:30am: Final exam
topics: everything from midterm 2 on