Nir Dagan > Teaching > 1999/2000 > EC111, Spring

Intermediate microeconomics (EC111)

Brown University, Spring 2000

• General description
• Required texts
• Homework assignments
• Outline of the course
• Resources from other courses

General description

The course intermediate microeconomics discusses first the theories of consumer and firm decision making. Then we turn to study how prices are determined in equilibrium and how resources are allocated. We will consider both competitive markets and markets with a monopolist. We will also study concepts of economic efficiency and evaluate whether different markets mechanisms result in an efficient allocation of resources.

Prerequisites

The prerequisites are: MA6, MA7, MA9 or equivalent; and EC11 or advanced placement. Willingness to work hard is strongly recommended.

Lectures

Lectures are scheduled for Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 10:00-10:50. The professor may be contacted in several ways. The teaching assistant is Mr. Min, and his conference sections are in Thursday 12:00 and 7:00.

Grading

The grades will be composed of the following parts: Homeworks 10%, midterm exam 35% and final exam 55%.

The midterm exam is scheduled for March 8th, 2000.

Required texts

• Hal Varian, Intermediate Microeconomics: A Modern Approach, 5th Ed., W.W. Norton, 1999.
• Theodore Bergstrom & Hal Varian, Workouts in Intermediate Microeconomics, 5th Ed., W.W. Norton, 1999

Homework assignments

All assignments are from the workouts book.

• 6.1 6.3 6.4 6.7 6.8 6.12 6.13 due Wednesday March 1st, 2000.
• 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.6 5.8 5.10 5.12 5.13 due Wednesday February 23rd, 2000.
• 4.1 4.2 4.8 4.9 4.12 4.13 4.14 due Wednesday February 16th, 2000.
• 3.2 3.3 3.5 3.6 3.8 3.10 3.14 3.15 due Wednesday February 9th, 2000.
• 2.2 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.10 2.11 2.12 due Wednesday February 7th, 2000.

Outline of the course

1. Introduction
2. Consumer theory
   1. The budget constraint, preferences, and utility functions
   2. Optimization, offer curve, demand function, consumer's surplus
3. Theory of the firm
   1. Production technology and the production function
   2. Minimization of cost and cost functions
   3. Maximization of profit and the supply function
4. Equilibrium in a single market
   1. Aggregate demand and supply, competitive equilibrium, market surplus.
   2. A market with a monopoly, comparison with competitive equilibrium.
5. General competitive equilibrium
   1. The Edgeworth box and economic (or Pareto) efficiency
   2. Offer curves and competitive equilibrium

Resources from other courses

• The course of the previous semester
• Economic theory I a similar course that I gave elsewhere. Includes some problem sets and a solved exam.
• A math refresher for EC111 (in PDF format) by Jim Davis.
• Handouts from EC0113 by Rajiv Vohra (in PDF format)
  • Optimal consumer choice
  • Consumer's surplus