Economics 401: Intermediate Microeconomics, spring 2012
Instructor: Prof. Jeremy A. Sandford
Office hour: T 3-4pm, 335L B&E, or by appointment
Lecture:
9-9:50am TH, BE 305
Quiz dates:
Monday, January 30, Monday, February 13, Wednesday, February 29, Friday, March
23, in class
Final exam
date: Thursday, May 3, 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, due
4/18/12
Homework 6/ final exam
prep, not collected
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
Wednesday, January 11: Intro: microeconomics is the study of incentives and their consequences
Friday, January 13: Consumer incentives I: budget
constraints and indifference curves
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 3
Lecture notes 1
Monday, January 16: No class, Martin Luther King Day
Wednesday, January 18: Propoerties of indifference curves
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 3
Lecture notes 1
Friday, January 20: consumer choice, graphical
Lecture notes 2
Monday, January 23: utility maximization
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 3
Lecture notes 2
Wednesday, January 25: utility maximization, marginal
utility
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 3
Lecture notes 2
Friday, January 27: special cases of utility functions:
perfect complements and perfect substitutes
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 3
Lecture notes 2
Monday, January 30: Quiz #1 (with answers) (on consumer choice model)
Wednesday, February 1: expected utility and uncertainty
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 5 (skip 5.4)
Lecture notes 3
Friday, February 3: expected utility and uncertainty
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 5 (skip 5.4)
Lecture notes 3
Monday, February 6: No class
Wednesday, February 8: expected utility and uncertainty
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 5 (skip 5.4)
Lecture notes 3
Friday, February 10: Examples of problems involving
expected utility
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 5 (skip 5.4)
Lecture notes 3
Monday, February 13: quiz #2
Wednesday, February 15: firm production
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 6
Lecture notes 4
Friday, February 17: isoquants, costs
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 7
Lecture notes 5
Monday, February 20: Profit maximization and market
structure, perfectly competitive firms
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 8
Lecture notes 6
Wednesday, February 22: Entry and exit in the perfectly
competitive model
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 8
Lecture notes 6
Friday, February 24: Monopoly
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 10
Lecture notes 7
Monday, February 27: Monopoly
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 10
Lecture notes 7
Wednesday, February 29: quiz #3 (with answers)
Friday, March 2: Intro to game theory
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 13
Lecture notes 8
Monday, March 5: no class
Wednesday, March 7: game theory: Nash equilibrium and mixed
strategies
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 13
Lecture notes 8
Friday, March 9: game theory: sequential games
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 13
Lecture notes 9
Monday, March 12 - Friday, March 16: No class (spring break)
Monday, March 19: Asymmetric information: adverse selection
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
Wednesday, March 21: 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
Friday, March 23: Quiz #4 (with answers)
Monday, March 26: Moral hazard, efficiency wages
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 17.3-17.6
Lecture notes 11
Wednesday, March 28: Public goods
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 18
Lecture notes 12
Friday, March 30: Externalities
reading: Pindyck and Rubinfeld, chapter 18
Lecture notes 13
Monday, April 2: Economics of crime: measuring crime,
crime trends of last 50 years
reading: Hellman and Alper, chapter 1
Wednesday, April 4: Causes of 1990's decrease in crime
reading: Hellman and Alper, chapter 1
Levitt, S., 2004, Understanding why crime fell in the 1990's: Four
factors that explain the decline and six that do not, The Journal of
Economic Perspectives, 18.1, pp 163-190
Friday, April 6: Causes of 1990's decrease in crime
reading: Hellman and Alper, chapter 1
Levitt, S., 2004, Understanding why crime fell in the 1990's: Four
factors that explain the decline and six that do not, The Journal of
Economic Perspectives, 18.1, pp 163-190
Monday, April 9: Measuring the ecnomic 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
Wednesday, April 11: A simple economic model of criminal
behavior
reading: Hellman and Alper, chapter 3
Friday, April 13: Optimal allocation of criminal justic
resources
reading: Hellman and Alper, chapter 4
Monday, April 16: The deterrence effect of the death
penalty and prison conditions, econometrics primer
reading: Levitt, S. (2003) "Prison conditions, captial punishment, and
deterrence", American Law and Economics review, 5.2, pp. 318-343
Wednesday, April 18: The deterrence effect of the death
penalty and prison conditions, econometrics primer
reading: Levitt, S. (2003) "Prison conditions, captial punishment, and
deterrence", American Law and Economics review, 5.2, pp. 318-343
Friday, April 20: No class
Monday, April 23: The markets for heroin and cocaine
(chart)
reading: Hellman and Alper, chapter 8
Wednesday, April 25: Economics of drug distribution
reading: Levitt, S. and S. Venkatesh (2000),
"An economic analysis of a drug-selling gang's finances", Quarterly
Journal of Economics, 115.3, pp. 755-789
Friday, April 27: Economics of drug distribution
reading: Levitt, S. and S. Venkatesh (2000),
"An economic analysis of a drug-selling gang's finances", Quarterly
Journal of Economics, 115.3, pp. 755-789
Thursday, May 3, 10:30am-12:30pm: Final exam, room BE 305