You are on page 1of 3

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

E LEMENTS O F E CONOMIC A NALYSIS I ECON 20000-04 F ALL Q UARTER 2013


Time and location Tuesday & Thursday 9:00 10:20 am, RO-015. Lecturer Jrn Boehnke jboehnke@uchicago.edu Office hour: TBA (STU Caf) Course goals This is a first course in intermediate microeconomic theory. We review the model of supply and demand, both with the market economy as well as non-market allocation systems. Most of the course will be spent exploring the theory of consumer choice, constrained by scarce resources. This is a simple but extremely powerful tool in thinking about many aspects of human behavior. Prerequisites All students shou1d have completed Math 153, Math 163, or both Math 133 plus 195. Anyone having difficulties with derivatives should see the TA or myself as early in the quarter as possible. Test yourself with the handout on mathematical methods. Text Varian, Hal R., Intermediate Microeconomics: A Modern Approach, 8th edition, Norton. Older editions should be fine as well. This book is available on reserve in the library. Lima, Victor, Intermediate Microeconomics These lecture notes are available in the Social Science copy room. I strongly recommend using both texts as complements to this lecture. Limas lecture notes contain very neat and detailed mathematical derivations of all formulae needed throughout this course. They are going beyond the scope of what we are doing in this course (there is no need to panic when looking at them). Varian, on the other hand, puts less weight on mathematical precision and stresses more the economic intuition behind the equations (a very important part of your ECON 200 education). Web Resources http://chalk.uchicago.edu. All registered students will automatically be added to Chalk. Problem sets will be posted here one week prior to their due date. Teaching Assistant Victor Jean Gay victorgay@uchicago.edu Review Session: Mon. 4:00 4:50 pm, RO-015 Office hour: TBA (STU Caf)

Office hours To address any questions students may have, the TA and I will each hold an office hour every week, aside from lectures and review sessions. The office hours stated above are subject to change. Please check your emails. Problem Sets Problem sets are required as part of the course work. Problem sets will be due at the beginning of your TA session, and no late problem sets will be accepted. Handwritten answers are fine as long as you write neatly. You are encouraged to work together on the problem sets, but every student enrolled in the course must hand in an individual solution. All problem sets should include your Name (as registered with the university) and Student ID. If you work with other students you must also write down the name of your partners on your homework. It is in your self-interest to be neat, as partial credit depends heavily on clarity. Lastly, please staple your problem sets to facilitate the grading process. You are allowed to miss one problem set. There will be no exception to this rule. If you hand in all problem sets, the one with the lowest score will be ignored when computing the totals (i.e., doing all the problem sets works in your favor). Your TA is fully in charge of the problem sets. Any problem set related questions should be directly addressed to him! Assessment Problem sets, midterm, and final exam will count toward your grade as follows Problem Sets Midterm Exam Final Exam 20% 30% 50%

Both exams will be closed book and close note exams. I reserve the right to raise grades upwards at my discretion, in very rare cases, to recognize exceptional participation, positive trends, or extenuating circumstances.

Course Timeline

(subject to change)

Readings are denoted V.X for Varian chapter X and L.X for Lima chapter X. 10/01 Overview. (V.I, Mathematical handout, L.1 but ignore all second order and second differential parts) 10/03 10/08 10/10 10/15 10/17 10/22 10/24 10/29 10/31 11/05 11/07 11/12 11/14 11/19 11/21 11/26 11/28 12/03 12/05 12/10? Budget Constraint: Describing a limited set of choices. (V.2, L.3.3 3.6) Preferences and Utility. (V.3, V.4) Utility. (V.4, L.4) Optimal Choice. (V.5, V.5 Appendix, L.5.1 5.5) Expenditure Minimization. (L.6.1 6.6) Duality. (L.7) Income and Substitution: Comparative Statics. (V.6, V.8, L.8.1 8.3.3) The Slutsky Equation. (V.8, L.8) Applications as time permits. MIDTERM Applications: Labor Market, Intertemporal Choice. (V.9, V.10) Application: Asset Markets. (V.11) Uncertainty. (V.12) Consumer Surplus. (V.14, L.10) Aggregate Market Demand and Elasticity. (V.15) General Equilibrium of an Endowment Economy (V.16, L.29) Thanksgiving General Equilibrium of an Endowment Economy continued (V.16, L.29) Reading Period FINAL

You might also like