Download - 120930 Syllabus Principles of Economics i Jeb101 and Principles of Microeconomics Jpm322

7/30/2019 120930 Syllabus Principles of Economics i Jeb101 and Principles of Microeconomics Jpm322

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Principles of Economics I (JEB101) and Principles of Microeconomics (JPM322)

Winter Semester 2012-13, Charles University, Faculty of Social Sciences

This course introduces economic thinking and basic principles of microeconomics for

economics students as well as for non-economists. The lectures will be the same for bothPrinciples of Economics I and Principles of Microeconomics. External guest lecturers will be

often invited to contribute to the lectures and thus enrich the course. The course begins

with the first lecture on 3rd

October at 8 am in room no. 314. The location of all lecture and

seminar rooms is the Institute of Economic Studies at Opletalova 26, Praha.

This is an introductory microeconomics course with lectures and seminars for students of:

Bachelor in Economics and Finance (as a mandatory course). Bakalsk studium Ekonomie (mandatory, as an alternative to Ekonomie I). International Economic and Political Studies (mandatory as PoM). Any degree at Charles University with interest in economics (optional).

Lectures and supervisor

Lecture Day Time Room Lecturer Contact

Wednesday 8:00-9:20 314 Petr Jansk web,email

Seminars and tutors

Seminar Day Time Room Tutor Contact1 Friday 9:30-10:50 206 Jan olc web,email

2 Wednesday 14:00-15:20 314 Jan Soudek web,email

3 Friday 12:30-13:50 105 TBA TBA

Furthermore, Jan olc is responsible for Aplia and Jan Soudek for written exams and thePrinciples of Microeconomics seminar and projects. Do not hesitate to contact them in case

you have questions related to these issues.

Readings

The course follows the material that is present in almost identical form in one of the

following three textbooks (and also their earlier or later editions):

Mankiw, N.G., Taylor, M.P.: Economics (2nd or earlier edition). The chapternumbers in the weekly schedule below relate to this textbook.

Mankiw, N.G..: Principles of Economics (6th edition or earlier edition). Mankiw, N.G..: Principles of Microeconomics (6th edition or earlier edition)
http://ies.fsv.cuni.cz/en/staff/janskyhttp://ies.fsv.cuni.cz/en/staff/janskymailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://ies.fsv.cuni.cz/en/staff/solchttp://ies.fsv.cuni.cz/en/staff/solcmailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://ies.fsv.cuni.cz/cs/staff/soudekhttp://ies.fsv.cuni.cz/cs/staff/soudekmailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://ies.fsv.cuni.cz/cs/staff/soudekmailto:[email protected]://ies.fsv.cuni.cz/en/staff/solcmailto:[email protected]://ies.fsv.cuni.cz/en/staff/jansky


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Students are encouraged to read one of these textbooks. There are a number of copies of

the Economics textbook available in the IES library (and some in the CERGE-EI library).

Students can also buy their own textbooks. Also please note that a number of other

introductory economics texts provide almost equivalent service to the student as the above

mentioned textbooks.

The student hand-outs and lecture presentations will be regularly updated atthe SIS coursepages, to which all the students should sign up. The supporting web pages of this course

includethe webpage of the textbook, which has useful student hand-outs and other student

resources.

Requirements and assessment

Regular lectures and seminars are organised for the benefit of the students, who are

encouraged to provide constructive feedback during the semester so that teaching can be

altered accordingly for their greater benefit. Attendance at both lectures and seminars is

voluntary, but highly recommended. Furthermore, experience shows that there is a strong

positive correlation between attendance in class and good results in exams.

This course offers two alternatives for final examination. Students can decide either to fulfil

assignments in an online Aplia system during the semester or to sit in for a written exam at

the end of the semester. It is also possible to sit in for the written exam after trying Aplia.

Most of the questions in the written exam will be multiple choice, true or false or of a similar

type. Aplia assignments include problem sets and readings to be submitted on a weekly basis

- more on Aplia and how to purchase it is at the end of this syllabus. For both Aplia and the

exam, the grading follows this simple rule: the total number of points received is divided by

the maximum number of points that could have been received.

For students of PoE I, written exam or Aplia results account for 100% of the final grade.

For students of PoM, written exam or Aplia results account for only 60% of the final grade. A

further maximum of 25% can be awarded for student essays and another maximum of 15%

for student presentations. More information is at the end of the syllabus.

Total values higher than 90% correspond to grade 1 (vborn in Czech), between 80% and90% to grade 2 (chvalitebn), between 70% and 80% to grade 3 (dobe).

Weekly schedule (the guest lecturers to be added throughout the semester)

Week

(Winter)

Day (2012) Themes Mankiw

chapters

1 3th

October Ten Principles of Economics; Thinking Like an

Economist (Circular Flow, Production Possibilities

Frontier) and course introduction (objectives,

requirements, information sources)

1 + 2

2 10th

October Interdependence and the Gains from Trade

A guest lecture by Vilm Semerk, Ph.D. (web)

3

3 17th

October The Market Forces of Supply and Demand; 4 + 5 + 6
https://is.cuni.cz/studium/predmety/index.php?id=e652305d59d5ac5718c434490f168a05&tid=&do=predmet&kod=JEB101https://is.cuni.cz/studium/predmety/index.php?id=e652305d59d5ac5718c434490f168a05&tid=&do=predmet&kod=JEB101https://is.cuni.cz/studium/predmety/index.php?id=e652305d59d5ac5718c434490f168a05&tid=&do=predmet&kod=JEB101https://is.cuni.cz/studium/predmety/index.php?id=e652305d59d5ac5718c434490f168a05&tid=&do=predmet&kod=JEB101http://www.thomsonedu.com/economics/mankiw/edition_5/economics.htmlhttp://www.thomsonedu.com/economics/mankiw/edition_5/economics.htmlhttp://www.thomsonedu.com/economics/mankiw/edition_5/economics.htmlhttp://www.cerge-ei.cz/post-doctoral-fellows/mgr-ing-vilem-semerak-phdhttp://www.cerge-ei.cz/post-doctoral-fellows/mgr-ing-vilem-semerak-phdhttp://www.cerge-ei.cz/post-doctoral-fellows/mgr-ing-vilem-semerak-phdhttp://www.cerge-ei.cz/post-doctoral-fellows/mgr-ing-vilem-semerak-phdhttp://www.thomsonedu.com/economics/mankiw/edition_5/economics.htmlhttps://is.cuni.cz/studium/predmety/index.php?id=e652305d59d5ac5718c434490f168a05&tid=&do=predmet&kod=JEB101https://is.cuni.cz/studium/predmety/index.php?id=e652305d59d5ac5718c434490f168a05&tid=&do=predmet&kod=JEB101


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Elasticity and Its Application; Supply, Demand and

Government Policies

4 24th

October Consumers, Producers, and the Efficiency of

Markets; The Costs of Taxation; International

Trade;

a guest lecture by Prof. Manfred J. Holler(web)

7 + 8 + 9

5 31st

October Externalities (the Coase theorem); Public Goods

and Common Resources (the Tragedy of the

Commons)

10 + 11

6 7th

November The Design of the Tax System (Efficiency and

Equity)

12

7 14th

November The Costs of Production; Firms in Competitive

Markets

13 + 14

8 21

st

November Monopoly; Oligopoly; Monopolistic Competition 15 + 16 +17

9 28th

November The Markets for the Factors of Production;

Earnings and Discrimination

18 + 19

10 5th

December Income Inequality and Poverty 20

11 12th

December The Theory of Consumer Choice 21

12 19th

December Frontiers of Microeconomics 22
http://www.wiso.uni-hamburg.de/fachbereiche/vwl/emeriti/prof-dr-manfred-j-holler/http://www.wiso.uni-hamburg.de/fachbereiche/vwl/emeriti/prof-dr-manfred-j-holler/http://www.wiso.uni-hamburg.de/fachbereiche/vwl/emeriti/prof-dr-manfred-j-holler/http://www.wiso.uni-hamburg.de/fachbereiche/vwl/emeriti/prof-dr-manfred-j-holler/


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For students, who decide to try Aplia: Aplia Assignments

There are two equal options how to pass the final examinations in this course. Aplia is one of

them and a written exam at the end of the semester is the other. Aplia is an online

assignment system that provides students with the opportunity to fulfil their course

requirements gradually during the semester on a weekly basis. Students choosing the Aplia

examination option pay the Aplia supplier GBP 13.42 for this course (around 420 CZK). Aplia

offers a grace period of unlimited access to this course till October 21st

so that students can

try it out without or before paying.

Instructions on how to register for this course inAplia:

1. Go towww.aplia.comandclick onCreate a new account, Student account.2. Fill in the course key: HCGZ-S2K5-72NY3. Confirm course information (Principles of Economics I, Winter 2012-2013, Charles

University, Instructor Petr Jansk), fill in and then confirm your personal information,

accept email confirmation and pay now or later.

4. Login atApliato your course and start with your assignments!Academic honesty is expected from all students in the class.
http://www.aplia.com/http://www.aplia.com/http://www.aplia.com/http://www.aplia.com/http://www.aplia.com/http://www.aplia.com/https://courses.aplia.com/af/servlet/studentreg?page=gotocoursekey&ctx=apliahttps://courses.aplia.com/af/servlet/studentreg?page=gotocoursekey&ctx=apliahttps://courses.aplia.com/af/servlet/studentreg?page=gotocoursekey&ctx=apliahttp://www.aplia.com/http://www.aplia.com/http://www.aplia.com/http://www.aplia.com/https://courses.aplia.com/af/servlet/studentreg?page=gotocoursekey&ctx=apliahttp://www.aplia.com/http://www.aplia.com/


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For students of Principles of Microeconomics and IEPS: Projects

For students of PoM, essays and presentations (projects) are a part of the requirements. For

these projects, students of PoM should form pairs. These teams of two students should

choose a topic from the list available below and sign up for it at one of the first three

sessions of the Seminar 2 (Wednesday 14:00-15:20 in room 314) on a first come, first servedbasis. Teams are expected to write a 6-to-8-page long essay and prepare a 10-minute

presentation on the same topic. The deadline for submitting the essay is 4th

of December

23:59.

Presentations will be presented at the seminar 2 (Wednesday 14:00-15:20 in room 314)

according to the time schedule below.

Week

(Winter)

Day (2012) Themes Topics of projects

8 21st

November Monopoly;

Oligopoly;Monopolistic

Competition

1) Tullock, Gordon: The Welfare Costs of

Tariffs, Monopolies, and Theft2) Current cases of abuse of monopoly power

3) Regulations against monopoles

9 28th

November The Markets

for the Factors

of Production;

Earnings and

Discrimination

1) Coase, Ronald H.: The Nature of the Firm

2) Ponzi scheme and financial bubbles

3) Labor productivity across countries:

differences, causes and implications

10 5th

December Income

Inequality andPoverty

1) Paul Krugman:In praise of cheap labor

2) Poverty in the world

3) Inequality in the world

11 12th

December The Theory of

Consumer

Choice

1) James M. Buchanan: Public Finance in

Democratic Process: Fiscal Institutions and

Individual Choice

2) Current fiscal difficulties: how we got

there?

3) Ideal tax system andMirrlees Review

12 19th

December Frontiers of

Microeconomi

cs

1) Stigler, George J.: The Economics of

Information

2) Hlavek, J.: Homo se assecurans.

3) Moral Hazard in 2008 financial crisis

Note that any topic relevant to Microeconomics not included in the list can be added after

the approval of Jan Soudek, with whom you should also communicate any related problems

or questions.
http://web.mit.edu/krugman/www/smokey.htmlhttp://web.mit.edu/krugman/www/smokey.htmlhttp://web.mit.edu/krugman/www/smokey.htmlhttp://www.ifs.org.uk/mirrleesReviewhttp://www.ifs.org.uk/mirrleesReviewhttp://www.ifs.org.uk/mirrleesReviewhttp://www.ifs.org.uk/mirrleesReviewhttp://web.mit.edu/krugman/www/smokey.html