| SES # | TOPICS | Readings |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Overview of the Current U.S. economy Supply and Demand | Freudenheim, Milt. "Companies Limit Health Coverage of Many Retirees." New York Times, February 3, 2004, Section A, Page 1. Levy, Frank, and Richard J. Murnane. "Got a Routine Job? Not for Long." Washington Post Sunday Outlook, July 4, 2004, Page 3. Nicholson. Chapter 1 and appendix to chapter 1. Tools: Experiment with examples 1.1 and 1.2 under Demand and Supply. |
| 2 | Supply and Demand (cont.) and Elasticity | Nicholson. pp. 130-149. Wessel, David. "A Lesson from the Blackout: Free Markets Also Need Rules." Wall Street Journal, August 28, 2003, Page 1. Tools: Experiment with examples 1.3 through 1.5 under Demand and Supply. |
| 3 | Tutorial 1: Simple First Derivatives and Basic Calculus | |
| 4 | Begin Utility Maximization and the Allocation of Scarce Resources - e.g. the Machinery Behind the Demand Curve | Nicholson. Chapter 2. Tools: Experiment with three exercises under Consumer Behavior. |
| 5 | Utility Maximization (cont.) Individual Demand and Market Demand | Nicholson. Chapters 3 and 4, pp. 126-130. |
| 6 | The Cost of Medical Care - An Application of Demand/Supply and Utility Under Uncertainty | Nicholson. pp. 503-509. Newhouse, Joseph. "Medical Care Costs: How Much Welfare Loss?" Journal of Economic Perspectives, 6, no. 3: 3-21. |
| 7 | Technology, Costs and Returns to Scale | Nicholson. Chapters 5 and 6. Autor, David, Frank Levy, and Richard J. Murnane. "Upstairs, Downstairs: Computers and Skills on Two Floors of a Large Bank." Industrial and Labor Relations Review, April 2002, pp. 432, ff. Tools: Experiment with exercise 3.1 "Cost" under Producer Behavior. |
| 8 | Technology, Costs and Returns to Scale (cont.) | Nicholson. Chapters 5 and 6. Autor, David, Frank Levy, and Richard J. Murnane. "Upstairs, Downstairs: Computers and Skills on Two Floors of a Large Bank." Industrial and Labor Relations Review, April 2002, pp. 432, ff. Tools: Experiment with exercise 3.1 "Cost" under Producer Behavior. |
| 9 | Basic Logic of Profit Maximization | Nicholson. Chapter 7. Tools: Under Markets, experiment with exercise 4.2.1 "Demand and Revenue." |
| First Midterm (covers through Session 8) | ||
| 10 | Profit Maximization in Competitive Markets | Nicholson. Chapters 8 and 9. Tools: Experiment with exercise 4.1.1 "Short and Long Run Equilibria" under Markets. |
| 11 | Profit Maximization in Competitive Markets (cont.) | Nicholson. Chapters 8 and 9. Tools: Experiment with exercise 4.1.1 "Short and Long Run Equilibria" under Markets. |
| 12 | Profit Maximization Under Monopoly | Nicholson. Chapter 10. Shapiro, Carl, and Hal Varian. Information Rules. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1998, chapter 7. ISBN: 087584863X.Belson, Ken. "In Startling Retreat, AT&T to Stop Marketing to Consumers." New York Times, July 23, 2004. Richtel, Matt. "Bells Win Battle, Not Necessarily the War." New York Times, July 23, 2004. |
| 13 | Oligopoly and Monopolistic Competition | Nicholson. Chapter 11. Maynard, Micheline. "Pilots at Delta Offer to Take a 23% Cut in Wages." New York Times, July 22, 2004. For an example of monopolistic competition by adding features, look at the evolution of PDA's (e.g. Palm Pilots) and Smart Phones on Palm Evolution. |
| 14 | A Taste of Simple Game Theory | Nicholson. Chapter 12. Ellison, Glenn, and Sara Fisher Ellison. "Search, Obfuscation, and Price Elasticites on the Internet." January 2001. (PDF) |
| Second Midterm (covers through Session 12) | ||
| 15 | International Trade and Offshoring | Krugman, Paul R., and Maurice Obstfeld. International Economics: Theory and Policy. Pearson Education Limited; International edition edition2008, chapter 2, pp. 10-37. ISBN: 9781408208076. Boo, Katherine. "Letter from India: The Best Job in Town." The New Yorker, July 5, 2004, pp. 54-69. |
| 16 | Pulling it Together - Trade, Technology and the Labor Market | Uchitelle, Louis. "Surge in Jobs Mostly Bypasses the Factory Floor." New York Times, May 11, 2004. |
| 17 | Course Wrap-up | |
| 18 | Final Exam |
Table of Contents
Study Materials
Readings
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Required Textbook
Nicholson, Walter. Intermediate Microeconomics and Its Applications. 9th ed. Stamford, CT: Thomson Learning, 2003. ISBN: 0030259169.