Economics 201: Introduction to Microeconomics, Fall 2022
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Economics 201: Introduction to Microeconomics, Fall 2022
Course Overview
Microeconomics is all about choices. In this course, we will look at how individuals, firms, and governments make choices. Some of these choices are:
• How big of a house should you build?
• Do football coaches punt too often?
• Why do airplane tickets get more expensive as the date of the flight approaches?
• Should Office Depot and Staples be allowed to merge?
• Should the minimum wage be increased?
We will use a combination of arithmetic, graphs, and intuition to answer these types of questions
Textbook
The textbook for this class is Principles of Microeconomics by Betsy Stevenson and Justin Wolfers.
Instructors
This course actually has two instructors. Seung Yeon is the course administrator. She will be in charge of most aspects of the course. She will write exams, hold office hours, and determine grades. Dr. Ackermann is the head professor for the course, the lecturer in the course videos, and author of this syllabus. I am happy to discuss course material, but all other questions should go to Seung Yeon. She will reach out to me if your question requires my attention.
Lectures
The lectures were recorded by Dr. Ackermann during 2020 and 2021. The video lectures and
corresponding slide shows are available on D2L.
Graded Components
Item |
Percentage |
Two highest exam scores (equally weighted) |
75% |
Homework assignments |
20% |
Research Experiment Participation |
5% |
Exams
There will be a total of three exams – two midterm exams and a final exam. The midterm exams are on October 18 and December 8. Each exam will start at 7 :00 p.m. (U.S. Eastern Time) and last for 50 minutes. The date and time of the final exam will be determined by the university. Only your two highest exam scores will count toward your course grade. This formulation is intended to address issues such as illnesses or other emergencies, as well as if you just have a bad test day. Moreover, this allows students who are satisfied with their grade after taking three midterms to skip the final exam. If you opt to do this, you do not need to let me know – when you skip the final exam, it will be scored as a zero and automatically dropped.
If you must miss an exam for reasons that can be anticipated (university-sponsored activities, religious observances, and other valid issues), an alternative exam time will be offered for the days before an exam. No make-up exams will be given after an exam. If you do not take an exam, that will be the exam that is dropped when I calculate your final course grade. If you believe you have had issues with multiple exams that require special consideration, you must fully document the multiple issues and schedule an appointment with me to discuss. Unless there were legitimate and documented excuses that have kept you from multiple exams (a situation that will be rare), further accommodations will not be provided.
All exams will be administered via D2L using a lockdown browser and remote proctoring service.
Students must have access to a webcam and microphone. The system is compatible with Windows (10, 8, 7), Mac (MacOS 10.15 to 10.12, OS X 10.11, OSX 10.10), and iPad (iOS 11.0+). The system is not compatible with Chromebooks. Alternate arrangements must be approved by the instructor within the first week of the course. The exams are closed-book, closed-note, closed-Internet. You are permitted to
use one side of an 8.5x11” sheet of paper with anything written or printed on it visible to the naked eye. Time Policy: To ensure each student has the same amount of time, all exam time cutoffs are strict.
Request for Accommodations: If you are eligible for an accommodation, please contact the Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities (RCPD) as soon as possible. Once RCPD has certified that you are eligible for an accommodation, please e-mail your VISA to Seung Yeon.
Topics Covered on Each Exam
Midterm 1:
Core Principles |
Demand |
Supply |
Equilibrium |
Elasticity |
Government Intervention |
Efficiency and Welcare |
Gains from Trade |
Midterm 2:
International Trade |
Externalities |
Labor Markets |
Wages |
Inequality |
Market Power |
Game Theory |
Pricing Strategies |
Private Information |
|
|
|
Final Exam:
The final exam will cover all material discussed in the course
Homework
This semester we will cover approximately 17 chapters. Each chapter has one associated assignment. Assignments will be completed online using Macmillan Achieve. The assignments are adaptive and are graded for completion, not accuracy. Each assignment will be weighted equally. Homework assignments will be due at 11:59 p.m. (U.S. Eastern Time) on the night before the exam covering the material. No late assignments are accepted. However, your four lowest chapter scores will be dropped.
Participation in Research Experiment
I have chosen to participate in an interdisciplinary research effort with the college to identify the most effective ways to help students think about complex problems. This semester you will complete three activities that are designed to improve critical and systematic thinking skills. These 3 activities are graded on completion and each is worth 1% of your final grade. The grading will be done by the research team and answers will not be shared with me.
To evaluate their effectiveness, I request that you complete a survey at the start and end of the semester, and answer some brief questions after each assignment. Each survey is worth 1% of your grade. However, your participation in the research component is completely voluntary. If you choose not to participate in a survey, the weight of your exam scores will be increased accordingly. So, if you do not complete either survey, your homework score will equal 22% of your grade.
Course Grade
Course grade cutoffs are shown below:
Transcript Grade |
Minimum Course Grade |
4 0 |
89 00 |
3.5 |
82.00 |
3 0 |
74 00 |
2.5 |
67.00 |
2.0 |
58.00 |
1 5 |
55 00 |
1.0 |
52.00 |
Please note that these cutoffs are strict. If you have a score of 81.99, you will receive a grade of 3.0. Because this course is so large, no matter what cutoff I use, there will be people who missed out on a higher grade by a fraction of a percentage point.
While the exams are not curved, you have two things working in your favor when it comes to your course grade. First, I expect the homework grades to have a median score of 100%. Second, course grade cutoffs are likely lower (more generous) than you see in other classes.
Grading Issues
All grading issues must be raised within one week of when your grade is provided to you. However, no grade changes will be made more than 24 hours after your final course grade is posted. Because all grading is done by computer, mistakes are very rare, and it is unlikely that your grade will be adjusted.
Honor Code
Your behavior is governed by the Spartan Code of Honor. If you do not yet understand your responsibilities under this code, I urge you to go to the university webpage here to learn more. I will do my best to discourage cheating by actively proctoring exams, but there is a limit to what I can do.
Ultimately, you should recognize that nothing we do in this course is worth jeopardizing your integrity over.
Course Policies
I will strictly follow course policies, simply because it is not fair to deviate from these policies for some while applying them to others. If you believe you have circumstances that warrant special consideration, I will listen to your circumstances. However, I have designed the course to cover most situations (e.g., all students will have one exam score dropped), so I anticipate needing to accommodate very few special requests.
I am always happy to explain the reasoning behind any course policy. Most of these policies are rooted in the fact that I have about 2,000 students this semester. I strive to be objective and treat everyone fairly.
Administrative Matters
Seung Yeon and I occasionally will tell you information related to course administration. For example, I may extend the deadline of a homework assignment. You are responsible for any material which is (a) in the syllabus, (b) sent to you via e-mail, or (c) included in class slides. I will typically convey this sort of information multiple times.
There is a folder on D2L called “Administrative”. It contains the course syllabus, a help room schedule, and other administrative materials.
Please do not ask me or a teaching assistant an administrative question that could be answered by looking at the syllabus, an e-mail, the class slides, or the “Administrative” folder on D2L.
E-mails
If you are uncertain of a matter related to course administration (for example, if you do not know when a homework assignment is due), please take the following steps
1) Check the syllabus
2) Check the syllabus again, just in case
3) Check your e-mails from me and the teaching assistants
4) Review the class slides that have been posted and your notes on slides that have not yet been posted
5) Ask a friend
6) Email Seung Yeon at [email protected]
If you send an e-mail that asks a question which has been answered in class, in the syllabus, or in an e-mail, you may not receive a prompt reply. We try to answer all e-mails in a timely manner, but these administrative-type e-mails definitely fall lower on our priority list.
Okay, now that we’ve gotten through that unpleasant bit, I want to make it clear that we love receiving e-mails from students! Below are just a few of the many reasons when it would be great for you to e-mail Seung Yeon or Dr. Ackermann:
● You did not understand something in a video lecture
● You are having trouble solving a practice problem
● You want to talk about something you saw in the news
● You want to talk about something generally related to economics but outside the scope of this course
● You want help preparing for the next exam
● You want general advice pertaining to this course, taking additional economics courses, or college in general
● You have an idea for a research project
● You just want to introduce yourself
● You have a good joke to tell.
These are also great reasons to attend office hours.
Please include your section number in all e-mail correspondence.
Help Rooms
The Economics Help Rooms offer academic support to students enrolled in this course. In Help Rooms, students may receive assistance in a number of areas, including completing homework and practice problems, reviewing course concepts, and preparing for exams. A link to the Help Room Schedule can be found in the “Administrative” folder on D2L.
Office Hours
Seung Yeon and Dr. Ackermann will both have office hours. We will each have both virtual and in-person office hours. In-person office hours are drop-in, while virtual office hours are done by appointment. For virtual office hours, you will need to reserve a time for our meeting on Calendly. The table below gives the times and locations of our office hours, as well as links to schedule an appointment on Calendly.
|
In-Person Time |
In-Person Location |
|
Online Time |
Online Scheduling |
Dr. Ackermann |
Tuesdays: 12:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. |
25B Marshall-Adams Hall |
|
Tuesdays: 4 :00 p.m. - 5 :00 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. - 9:15 p.m. |
|
Seung Yeon |
|
|
|
Wednesdays 2:00 - 4 :00 |
https://calendl y.com/seungy eonjung/ec20 1
|
Additional Comments and Advice
1) I understand that some of the policies may seem harsh. For example, an assignment submitted one minute past the deadline receives a score of zero. Because this class is so large, I believe it is important to set and enforce strict guidelines. Regarding the homework deadlines, if I accept an assignment that is 5 minutes late, it becomes more difficult for me to justify rejecting an assignment that is an hour late, and if I accept an assignment that is an hour late, it becomes more difficult for me to justify rejecting an assignment that is a day late, and so on. To treat everyone fairly, I use the same rules for everyone.
2) Do lots of problems. This is, without question, the best way to prepare for exams. I will post practice problems before each midterm exam and the final. I recommend you do them by yourself, review the solutions, and come to office hours or the Economics Help Room if you have any questions.
3) It is easy to watch the videos, write down what you see on the slides, click through the homework assignments, and read through your notes before exams. This “bare-minimum” approach will not serve you well on the exams. Instead, be assertive and take ownership of your experience in this class! Which of the examples that we covered in class interest you? Go read some more about them! Is there something you don’t understand? Come ask us! Disappointed with your last exam score? Come ask me for advice! Not sure where to start studying? Do some practice problems!
4) Please do not wait until the last minute to come looking for help. Typically, my office hours are nearly empty at the beginning of the semester and extremely busy in the days before your final exam. However, that late in the semester, a substantial portion of your grade has already been determined, and it is difficult to learn a semester’s worth of material in a short period.
5) Please do not ask me for a grade change or extra credit opportunity. I am happy to work with you during the semester to improve your grade.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Economics provides a set of tools, using cost-benefit analyses, that helps us understand decision making in every part of life. Diversity is not only desirable but essential for economics. Without it, cost-benefit analyses will likely suffer from biases and blind spots. We can make better decisions, big and small, by embracing and learning from diverse experiences and perspectives. In this class I intend to create a learning environment that supports a diversity of thoughts, perspectives and experiences, and honors your identities (including race, color, gender, gender identity, religion, national origin, political persuasion, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, height, weight, veteran status, age or familial status). I am still in the process of learning about diverse perspectives and identities and will strive to create an inclusive environment and expect you to do the same
I encourage you to get involved and seek out the many resources supporting diversity, equity and inclusion we have in our department [Info.Econ (series of short videos that highlight breadth of economics),Women and Minorities in Economics (WAMIE) (RSO in the economics department) or Stacy Dickert-Conlin (Director of Diversity Matters)]; and on campus [Academic Support and Students Services for Underrepresented Populations,MSU Inclusive ResourcesOffice for Civil Rights and Title IX Education and Compliance].
Further information on Achieve
Achieve access is required for EC 201. Achieve access includes the eBook and the online homework. Achieve access includes the entire eBook- you do not need to purchase a print copy, unless you would like a print copy, in addition to your Achieve access. Do not purchase eBook-only or you will not have access to the required online homework inside Achieve.
● WHERE TO PURCHASE ACHIEVE ACCESS: buy an Achieve access code at any MSU bookstore or from Achieve (you can access Achieve via the link in D2L- instructions below). Achieve access codes are only guaranteed if purchased from a MSU bookstore or direct from Achieve.
● HOW TO LOG INTO ACHIEVE: Always Access Achieve through MSU's D2L: this link includes directions on how to enter an access code you've purchased from the bookstore OR purchase from Achieve. Achieve has 14 day trial access (also called a grace period) that will expire Jan 24th. If you use the free trial, you will need to enter an access code or purchase from Achieve by Jan 25.
● If you are having trouble, please try the following:
o Always use Chrome as your browser. Do not use Safari.
o Disable pop up blocker: Turn off browser pop-up blocker
o Clear cache/cookies regularly: How to Clear Cache and Cookies
o Make sure you are accessing Achieve through the link in D2L
o Check your junk email folder for emails.
Contact Achieve tech support at (800) 936-6899 for help with Achieve. They will give you a ticket number if there is an issue they cannot solve while you are on the phone with them. You can also find help articles and contact ACHIEVE tech support through their website (although calling them will result in a faster response): Achieve Tech Support
2022-09-16