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i ECONOMICS 101A Microeconomic Theory Instructor: David Card GSIs: Hedvig Horvath and Mark Borgschulte Course Description

and Reading List This is a course in intermediate microeconomics, emphasizing the applications of calculus and linear algebra to the problems of consumer decision making, firm behavior, and market interactions. Students are expected to be familiar with multivariate calculus (including e.g., limits, derivatives, integration) and with basic statistics (random variables, moments, etc.). The course material will be presented in a fairly mathematical way and the problem sets and examinations will require you to solve models and derive results. Students who are concerned about their mathematical ability should seriously consider Economics 100A. The lectures will be largely self-contained, and students are not required to buy a text. For students who want a book, I recommend Walter Nicholson and Christopher Snyder Microeconomic Theory: Basic Principles and Extensions (10th Edition). An alternative (slightly more theoretical) treatment of the same material is in Hal Varians textbook, Intermediate Microeconomics: A Modern Approach (8th Edition), published by Norton. Another slightly more application-oriented alternative is Jeff Perloffs textbook Microeconomics: Theory and Applications with Calculus. (See the cross listing of the three texts with the lectures, on the next page). Any of the three is a good supplement to the lectures, but the lectures will be at a somewhat higher level, and will not follow the textbook(s) closely. Lecture notes will be available on the course web site, as will problem sets, practice exams, and other course materials. The class will consist of two lectures (Tuesday and Thursday, 12:30-2, Room 155 of Donner Hall) and one discussion section per week (led by Michel and Mark). The section times/locations are as follows: Section 101 (Mark) Monday/Wednesday 5-6 pm, #87 Evans Section 102 (Hedvig) Monday/Wednesday 11-12 pm, #85 Evans Section 103 (Hedvig) Monday/Wednesday 6-7 pm, #106 Wheeler The discussion sections will present some additional material (for which all students will be responsible) and will also review the answers from problem sets, old exams, problems from the lectures, etc. Weekly problem sets will be assigned in most weeks of the term. Completed problem sets are due at the end of the Thursday lecture. We will not accept late problem sets. Instead, we will drop your two worst scores in calculating the problem set average score. Thus, you can miss up to 2 problem sets without any penalty. You are encouraged to work in groups but every student must hand in their own version of the answers. Course grades will be determined by a combination of grades on the weekly problem sets (20 percent), two midterm exam (15 percent each), and the final exam (50 percent). The midterm exams will be held in class, Thursday September 29 and Tuesday November 8.

Economics 101A Textbook Cross-Listing Lecture 1 2 Content Optimization Methods Consumer Preferences and Consumer Choice Applications of Indifference Curve Analysis Expenditure Functions Comparative Statics and the Slutsky Eq. Market Level Demand and Supply Labor Supply Intertemporal Consumption and Saving Production and Cost Sheppard's Lemma Supply Determination Monopoly Consumer/Producer Surplus and Applications Duopoly Game Theory Uncertainty Auctions Finance: CAPM and Efficient Markets Public Goods and Externalities Empirical Methods Lecture 1 2 Nicolson+ Snyder Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Ch 4, 1st part Varian Math Appendix Ch. 3-4-5 Perloff Calculus App Ch. 3

Ch 4, 2nd part Ch 5.6

Ch 4, pp. 117+

4-5

Chapter 5

Ch. 8

Ch. 4

Chapter 12 pp. 419+ Chapter 16 Chapter 17

Ch. 15, 16

Ch. 2

7 8

6 7

Ch 9.8 (and appendix) Ch. 10

Ch 5, Section 5 Ch 15, Section 4

9-11

8, 9

Ch. 9-10

Ch. 18, 20, 21

Ch. 6, 7

12-13 14 15

10-11 12 13

Ch. 9-11 Chapter 14 Chapter 5 pp. 165-170 Chapter 15 Chapter 8 Ch. 7, 18 Ch. 18 pp. 659+

Ch. 22, 23 Ch. 24, 25 Ch. 14

Ch. 8 Ch. 11, 12 Ch. 9

16-17 18-20 21-24 25-26 27-28

14,15 16-17 18-21 22-23 24-25

Ch. 27 Ch. 28-29 Ch. 12, 37 Ch 17 Ch. 13

Ch. 13 Ch. 14 Ch. 16, 18, 19 Ch. 14, p 115+

27-28

26-27

Ch 19.

Ch. 34, 36

Ch. 17

28

28

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