Baruch College

Department of Economics and Finance

School of Business
Economics 4100: Advanced Microeconomics
Spring 2016
Professor:
Office:
Email:
Class Hours:
Office Hours:
Classroom:

Hany Guirguis
10275-B Economics and Finance Department
hany_guirguis@baruch.cuny.edu
S:
11:10 am - 2:05 am
S:
2:05 am - 3:00 pm
Or by an appointment
11135 VC

Course Description: The course is intended to develop the intuitive and formal
mathematical structure of microeconomic theory. Topics covered will include utility
maximization, cost minimization, profit maximization, production functions, perfect
competition, monopoly, imperfect competition, factor markets, game theory, and general
equilibrium theory.
Prerequisite: Economics 3100
Required Text
David Besanko, Ronald R. Braeutigam, 2014, Microeconomics, fifth (or fourth)
edition, Wiley, ISBN 978-1-118-57227-6.
Recommended Texts
Alpha C. Chiang, and Kevin Wainwright, 2005, Fundamental Methods of
Mathematical Economics, fourth edition, McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Specific Course Objectives: Students will develop skills used by professional
economists to build models and analyze economic problems. Students will investigate
various subfields of microeconomics. Students will apply economic thinking to current
policy issues.
Learning Goals Addressed in this Course:
1 . Learning microeconomic theory in greater depth.
a. Explain how consumers maximize utility given their incomes, preferences and
the relative prices of goods in the market.
b. Explain how producers maximize profits given the available production
technology, the relative prices of inputs and the prices of goods in the
market.
c. Use the tools of demand and supply to explain changes in equilibrium prices
and quantities across different markets in the U.S. and to predict effects of
government policies such as taxes, tariffs and quotas, price supports and
1

price ceilings.
d. Discuss different types of markets in the economy and compare their
outcomes.
e. Apply game theory to analyze outcomes in various areas in economics: micro
economic theory, industrial organization, and public economics.
f. Explain how one can use general equilibrium analysis to explore the total
impact of government interventions with policies like an excise tax.
2. Effective Application of Critical Analytical skills to specific problems in
microeconomics.
Examination and Course Grading:
The course grade will be based on two exams that cover the textbook chapters examined
during class. The grade distribution can be stated as follows:
Exam I: TBD

40%

Final Exam (Cumulative)

50%

Assignments and Class Participation

10%

School Grading Policy

1. Grading
The median course grades (counting W's as 0) should adhere to the following
pattern:
FIN 3000: C+ (2.3)
FIN 3610/3710 and ECO 4000: B- (2.7)
Other 3000-level courses: B- (2.7)
Other 4000-level courses: B (3.0)
Basic graduate courses: FIN 9770, ECO9730, ECO9740: B+ (3.3)
Advanced graduate courses: B+ / A- (3.3 / 3.7)
The mean course grades (excluding W's) should not be far off.
All students should be treated fairly and equally. Among other things, this means
that any additional opportunities to improve the grade given to one student should
be made available to all students in the class.
There should be no negotiated F (or other) grades. A student who wants an F
should come to the final and submit the exam with no answers.

Course Policies:
- Attendance Policies: Students are expected to attend all lectures. Attendance will
only be taken at the beginning of each lecture. Unexcused Absences may and can
be held against you. Elementary courtesy would suggest that you inform me in
advance, by email, of any absence and its reason.
- The final exam will test your technical and conceptual understanding.
- Make sure to turn off your cell phone before the class starts. Sending messages
and navigating the Internet during the class is a non-professional conduct that will
not be tolerated.
- The content of the course might be subject to pre-announced changes.

Tentative Time Schedule:

Chapter

The Schedule will be updated to reflect the

progress in the course

Ch. 6, 7, and 8. Chiang Mathematical

Appendix

Mathematical Review

Ch. 3

Consumer Preferences and the Concept of

Utility

Ch. 4

Consumer Choice

Ch. 5

The Theory of Demand

Ch. 6

Input and Production Functions

Ch. 7

Costs and Cost Minimization

Ch. 8

Cost Curves
Exam I

Ch. 9 and 10

Perfect Competition and Competitive

Markets: Applications

Ch. 11
Ch. 12

Monopoly and Monopsony

Capturing Surplus
[This Lecture might be rescheduled]

Ch. 13

Market Structure and Competition

Ch. 14

Game Theory and Strategic Behavior

Ch. 16

General Equilibrium Theory

Final Exam

Academic Honesty Policy:

Academic dishonesty is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Cheating, forgery, plagiarism and collusion
in dishonest acts undermine the college's educational mission and the students' personal and intellectual
growth. Baruch students are expected to bear individual responsibility for their work, to learn the rules and
definitions that underlie the practice of academic integrity, and to uphold its ideals. Ignorance of the rules is

not an acceptable excuse for disobeying them. Any student who attempts to compromise or devalue the
academic process will be sanctioned.
Cheating and plagiarism are serious offenses. The following definitions are based on the College's
Academic Honesty website:
Cheating is the attempted or unauthorized use of materials, information, notes, study aids, devices
or communication during an academic exercise. Examples include but are not limited to:

Copying from another student during an examination or allowing another to copy your work
Unauthorized collaborating on a take home assignment or examination
Using unauthorized notes during a closed book examination
Using unauthorized electronic devices during an examination
Taking an examination for another student
Asking or allowing another student to take an examination for you
Changing a corrected exam and returning it for more credit
Submitting substantial portions of the same paper to two classes without consulting the second
instructor
Preparing answers or writing notes in a blue book (exam booklet) before an examination
Allowing others to research and write assigned papers including the use of commercial term paper
services

A Definition of Plagiarism:
Plagiarism means passing off the work of others as your own. The "work of others" means other
people's words and/or ideas. "Passing off...as your own" means including that work in your
assignment without adequate citation. Therefore, a slightly longer definition would be "Plagiarism
means including in your assignment other people's words and/or ideas without citing them
correctly." Here are some hints about citation: When you include the actual words of others, be
they from a printed source, from the web, or from a live presentation, they must appear within
quotation marks and you must indicate from where and from whom the words came. Otherwise
you are plagiarizing. When you include another person's ideas, you must indicate where you found
those ideas, even when you are paraphrasing them. Following someone else's sequence of ideas,
even if you paraphrase them, also is plagiarism. (An example would be paraphrasing a paragraph
from someone else's work, sentence by sentence, even if you include a citation of that author.) If
you have any questions about these definitions, please discuss them with me. You can also refer to
Baruch's online plagiarism tutorial http://newman.baruch.cuny.edu/help/plagiarism/default.htm or
to Ann Raimes, Keys for Writers pp. 116-128 (4th ed.), 104-112 (3rd ed.), or Fowler and Aaron,
The Little, Brown Handbook, pp. 629-38, where you can also read about correct styles of citation.
Examples of plagiarism include but are not limited to:
.
Copying another person's actual words without the use of quotation marks and footnotes (a
functional limit is four or more words taken from the work of another)

Presenting another person's ideas or theories in your own words without acknowledging them

Using information that is not considered common knowledge without acknowledging the source

Failure to acknowledge collaborators on homework and laboratory assignment