Course Syllabus: Principles of Microeconomics UVM EC12C/SPR 2017/VOTEY 105/1:15:2:30 TR

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1 Course Syllabus: Principles of Microeconomics UVM EC12C/SPR 2017/VOTEY 105/1:15:2:30 TR Prof: John F. Summa, PhD. Office: Old Mill, Rm. 229 Office Hours: Tue & Thu, 12:00-1:00 PM (or by appointment) Phone: (802) (c) Required Texts:* (1) Microeconomics, Individual Choice in Communities (1st edition), Gerald Friedman; (2) Real World Micro (23rd edition). *Both textbooks are available through the UVM bookstore. Additional information related to textbooks: Gerald Friedman website: Dollars & Sense Website: Course Objectives/Overview: Principles of microeconomics is an introduction to the study of how individuals and firms attempt to make optimal decisions under conditions of scarcity (constraints) in the marketplace for goods and services. A primary goal of this course is to acquire a basic understanding of the conventional view of these private choices and their consequences (and policy implications). Therefore, students will acquire fluency with conventional principles of micro and the key deficiencies. But through our two required textbooks, students will explore criticism of the standard model, from both analytical and empirical perspectives. Textbook readings will be supplemented with online readings from a variety of media sources. Learning Methodology: Class lectures will follow closely the required textbooks. These textbooks provide all the essentials for an introduction and critical assessment of the key concepts and policy implications of microeconomics. As each chapter is completed, homework exercises will be assigned by the instructor to be completed at Bb.

2 Course Outline: I. Week One (1/15/17) Ch.1, Friedman: Introduction: Why Economics? -Tuesday s Key Concepts: Economics as Social Science, Politics of Economic Theory, Methodical Individualism. -Thursday s Key Concepts: Economic Theory and Power, Economic Theory and Individualism, Alternative Economic Theory. -Tuesday s Reading: 1.2 Shaking the Invisible Hand by Chris Tilly (Read for Thursday) -Thursday s Reading: 1.4 Freedom, Equity, and Efficiency by Alejandro Reuss II. Week Two (1/22/17) Ch.2, Friedman: The Best of All Possible Worlds -Tuesday s Key Concepts: Presuppositions of Economic Theory, The Two Adam Smiths, Class Analysis and Karl Marx, Classical Economic Thought. -Thursday s Key Concepts: Neoclassical Economics, Behavioral Economics, John M. Keynes, Social Division and Detailed Division of Labor, Degradation of Labor. -Tuesday s Reading: 1.1 Free-Market Outcomes Are Not Fair And Not Free by Marty Wolfson -Thursday s Reading: 1.6 The Future of Work, Leisure, and Consumption by Juliet Schor III. Week Three (1/29/17) Ch.3, Friedman: Capitalism, Slavery, and The Economy -Tuesday s Key Concepts: Social Facts, Capitalism, Feudalism, Slavery, Profits, Wage Work and Class Conflict. -Thursday s Key Concepts: The Expansion of Capitalism, Economics as Study of Capitalism, Social Structures of Accumulation. -Tuesday s Reading: 1.5 Sharing the Wealth of the Commons by Peter Barnes -Thursday s Reading: 1.3 Pursuing Profits Or Power? By James K. Boyce

3 IV. Week Four (2/5/17) Ch.4, Friedman: Why Economists Don t Study Institutions, But Should -Tuesday s Key Concepts: Social Institutions and Transaction Costs, Social Norms, Self Interest, Economic Value of Trust, Love and Efficiency, Inequality and Social Capital. -Thursday s Key Concepts: Politics of Methodological Individualism, Ignoring History, Assumptions and Exogenous Factors in Neoclassical Theory, Production Possibility Frontiers (Appendix). -Tuesday s Reading: 8.2 Inequality: The Silly Tales Economists Like to Tell by Dean Baker -Thursday s Reading: 8.8 Inequality in the World by Arthur MacEwan V. Week Five (2/12/17) Ch.5, Friedman: Economics, Well-Being, and the Limits of Markets -Tuesday s Key Concepts: Paradoxes of Wealth, Social Construction of Need, Positional Goods, Limits of Wealth. -Thursday s Key Concepts: Community, Caring Labor, Care Labor and Efficiency of the Market, Women s Work, Caring Undermines Growth? Feminist Economic Theory. -Tuesday s Reading: 9.7 Wealth Inequality and Wealth Taxation: A Primer on Piketty by Steven Pressman -Thursday s Reading: 7.6 Household Labor, Caring Labor, Unpaid Labor by Nancy Folbre VI. Week Six (2/19/17) Ch.6, Friedman: Public Goods and Collective Action -Tuesday s Key Concepts: Public vs. Private Goods, Spillover Effects (Externalities),Pigouvian taxes and subsidies. -Thursday s Key Concepts: Coase Theorem, Transaction Costs, Tragedy of the Commons, Prisoner s Dilemma, Game Theory and Market Compatibility with Externalities. -Tuesday s Reading: 6.6 Mapping Environmental Injustice by Klara Zwickl, Michael Ash, and James K. Boyce -Thursday s Reading: 6.1 Pricing the Priceless: Inside the Strange World of Cost Benefit Analysis by Lisa Heinzerling and Frank Ackerman

4 VII. Week Seven (2/26/17) Ch.7, Friedman: Marginal Utility & Neoclassical Demand Theory -Tuesday s Key Concepts: Consumer Preferences, Diminishing Marginal Utility, Individual Demand Curves, Aggregate Demand Curves, Socially Constructed Demand (Veblen Effect). -Thursday s Key Concepts: Changes in Demand (Shifts in Demand Curve), Complements vs. Supplements, Normal vs. Inferior Goods, Price and Income Elasticity, Consumer Surplus. See Bb for supplemental PowerPoint slides -Tuesday s Reading: 2.6 Walled Off from Reality by John Miller -Thursday s Reading: 2.4 Is a $15 Minimum Wage Economically Feasible? by Jeannette Wicks-Lim VIII. Week Eight (3/12/17) Ch.8, Friedman: Supply: Markets With/Without Monopolies -Tuesday s Key Concepts: Supply Curves, Marginal Productivity, Diminishing Marginal Product of Factors, Marginal Costs, Total Costs, Average Costs, Fixed Costs, Supply Under Perfect Competition. -Thursday s Key Concepts: Marginal Revenue and Optimal Firm Output, Supply Conditions Under Imperfect Competition (Monopoly, Oligopoly, Monopoly Competition), Producer Surplus, Monopoly Rents, Long Run Marginal Costs. See Bb for supplemental PowerPoint slides -Tuesday s Reading: 2.1 Price Gouging: It s Just Supply and Demand by Marc Breslow -Thursday s Reading: 2.5 Corporate Cronyism: The Secret to Overpaid CEOs by Dean Baker IX. Week Nine (3/19/17) Ch.9, Friedman: Markets and Equilibrium -Tuesday s Key Concepts: Market Equilibrium (Supply=Demand),Price Controls and Consequences, Theory of Second Best, Problems With Equilibrium As a Concept, Behavioral Economics. -Thursday s Key Concepts: Labor Market Equilibrium, Supply of Labor, Equilibrium Price (Real Wage), Does Labor Supply Slope Downward or Upward?

5 See Bb for supplemental PowerPoint slides -Tuesday s Reading: 2.3 Does Rent Control Hurt Tenants? by Ellen Frank -Thursday s Reading: 2.7 The Airfare Mystery by Arthur MacEwan X. Week Ten (3/26/17) Ch.10, Friedman: Citizenship, Rights, and Dollars -Tuesday s Key Concepts: Inequality, Distribution of Income, Why Rich Are So Rich?, Inequality and Inheritance, Inequality and Education. -Thursday s Key Concepts: Social Consequences of Inequality, Declining Unionization, Leaky Buckets, Behind the Veil of Ignorance, Citizenship and Markets. -Tuesday s Reading: 8.6 The Undeserving Rich by Gar Alperovitz and Lew Daly -Thursday s Reading: 7.1 What s Behind Union Decline? U.S. vs. Canada by Alejandro Reuss XI. Week Eleven (4/2/17) Ch.11, Friedman: Labor Markets -Tuesday s Key Concepts: Marginal Product of Labor, Marginal Revenue Product, Supply of Labor, Immigration Labor Supply, Adam s Smith s Compensating Differentials. -Thursday s Key Concepts: Trends in Labor Supply, Labor Market Equilibrium as Optimal? Immigration Supply to the United States. -Tuesday s Reading: 7.5 Manicures, Pedicures, and Commodity Fetishism by Zoe Sherman -Thursday s Reading: 7.7 Missing Women Workers by Sirisha Naidu XII. Week Twelve (4/9/17) Ch. 12, Friedman: Real Labor Markets In Action -Tuesday s Key Concepts: Efficiency Wages and Productivity, The Ford Story, High vs. Low Road Companies, Efficiency Wages and Policy. -Thursday s Key Concepts: Unions and Democracy, Radical Labor Economists vs. Standard Economists, Power in Labor Markets, Economic Democracy, Labor Market Crowding.

6 -Tuesday s Reading: 7.5 Manicures, Pedicures, and Commodity Fetishism by Zoe Sherman -Thursday s Reading: 7.4 Dog Walking and College Teaching: The Rise of the Gig Economy by Gerald Friedman XIII. Week Thirteen (4/16/17) Ch.13, Friedman: Time, Risk and Uncertainty -Tuesday s Key Concepts: Present Value, Expected Present Value, Discount Rate, Liquidity Preference, Risk, Uncertainty. -Thursday s Key Concepts: Risk Averse, Risk-Return Frontier, Efficient Markets Hypothesis, Inefficient Financial Markets, Lemons and Asymmetric Information. -Tuesday s Reading: See Bb for reading (TBA) -Thursday s Reading: See Bb for reading (TBA) XIV. Week Fourteen (4/23/17) Ch.14, Friedman: Welfare States -Tuesday s Key Concepts: Public Sector (Government), Public Goods and Market Failure, Private Insurance and Market Failure, Social Insurance. -Thursday s Key Concepts: American Exceptionalism, John Kenneth Galbraith and Equity, Efficiency and Arthur Okun, State and Politics. -Tuesday s Reading: 9.5 The Burdens of American Federalism by Gerald Friedman -Thursday s Reading: 9.4 What s Wrong With a Flat Tax? By Arthur MacEwan XV. Week Fifteen (4/30/17) Final Exam Review: (Non-Cumulative) -Tuesday s Class: Review of Key Concepts I -Thursday s Class: Review of Key Concepts II Final Exam: May 12, 2017, 10:30-1:15 a.m. (Votey 105) ** The instructor reserves the right to alter the course outline and course requirements at any time

7 Grading Policy: Grades will be based on two mid-term exams (25% each), a final exam(25% and non-cumulative), homework assignments/exercises, supplemental homework, and any in-class quizzes (25%). Occasional surprise quizzes may be given and will count toward your homework grade. Exam dates will set and announced in class. For final exam date and location, please visit the UVM Registrar s exam schedule page (or see above). Attendance Expectations: You are required to attend every class and will be held responsible for material presented in class. Exams will be based on readings/exercises and material presented in lectures. If you miss class, it is your responsibility to acquire the material presented and assigned in that class. Electronic Devices: No electronic devices are allowed to be used during lectures unless pre-arranged with the instructor. Policy: The instructor cannot guarantee a timely response to inquiries/communication in terms of any course requirement deadlines (inside of 48 hours), although the instructor does try to respond to or text inquiries (use phone number listed above) as quickly as possible via Smart phone. Blackboard will be utilized only when necessary and should not become a substitute for attending class. Instructor office hours should be utilized to get timely answers to urgent questions. UVM Code of Academic Integrity: Violations of the UVM's Code of Academic Integrity are any acts which would have the effect of unfairly promoting or enhancing one's academic standing within the entire community of learners. Such acts are serious offenses and will not be tolerated. Any suspected violations of the Code will be forwarded to the Center for Student Ethics & Standards.

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