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Econ 100A: Microeconomics

Fall 2021

(syllabus draft 8/18/21)


Course Description and Objectives

Welcome to Econ 100A! Microeconomics is all about understanding people’s decisions and interactions. When do people’s decisions lead to good or bad outcomes for society? Where do prices come from and are they “right”? In this course we’ll learn the basic tools and concepts of microeconomics that economists use to study and explain aspects of questions like these in different contexts.

Our goal is to understand how microeconomics is done and to acquire and master the knowledge and skills that you will need when you study upper level economics courses. Topics we’ll cover include consumer and producer theory, partial equilibrium, general equilibrium in exchange and production economics, welfare economics, externalities, monopoly, and asymmetric information. My aims for the course:

1. Understand and apply the standard methodology of microeconomic theory and analysis. [PS1, PS2, CT1, CT2]

2. Critically evaluate methods and conclusions in “textbook” microeconomics. [CT3, CT4]

3. Explain concepts and arguments based on microeconomic theory to others. [CS1, CS2, CS3, LL3]

In the evaluation and grading section below I will describe how I hope to assess how well you have achieved these goals. The terms in parentheses refer to the Economics Department’s learning goals for Economics majors, which you can learn more about by clicking here.


Note on Online Format

Due to the impact of COVID-19 our class meetings will be held remotely. We are offering the course in synchronous format with an asynchronous option. What that means: all meetings will take place on Zoom at the scheduled time, but synchronous attendance is not required and you will be able to fully participate in the class without having to be online at any set time.

● Class meetings: live class will be held on Zoom at the scheduled times for those who are willing and able to attend. All classes will be recorded and posted to bCourses for you to view whenever you choose.

● Discussion sections: some discussion sections are in person, and some are online. None will be recorded. I strongly recommend attending your discussion section if at all possible, although in recognition of these uncertain times it is not absolutely compulsory. That means you should register for a section whose time and delivery mode works for you. We may be able to accommodate limited switching between sections. If you have a conflict that means you’d like to request that, during the first few days of class please contact the GSI of both the section you’re registered for and a section that works for you to inquire. I recommend that you do not change your own section registration via CalCentral as this can result in you losing your seat in the course!

● Office hours: office hours for me and the GSIs will be a mix of in person and online via Zoom. You can also chat to me before class (at the top of the hour, before class proper starts at ten after) or after class (I will typically be able to stick around for 10-15 minutes after each class meeting to answer questions). We will also use Piazza to answer questions and facilitate discussions!

● COVID-19 Policies: we all must adhere strictly to UC Berkeley face covering requirements. Currently, you are required to wear face coverings in in-person settings even if you are fully vaccinated. Please see https://coronavirus.berkeley.edu/return-to-campus/face-coverings/. Do not eat or drink in in-person discussion sections or office hours.

I will administer everything in the course through bCourses and frequently communicate with you via bCourses announcements. Please contact me at any time if you feel that you could use extra clarity, flexibility, or support!


Prerequisites

The prerequisites for this course are Econ 1, 2, C3, or EnvEcon 1; Math 1A or 16A; Math 1B or 16B; or equivalents. I’ll assume prior knowledge of basic economic concepts and of multivariate calculus and optimization theory from math. We can help you to learn math that you might not be familiar with, but if you don’t have the prerequisites you might have to spend extra time working on the material and on your math skills.


Textbook/Required Course Materials

There are no required course materials that you have to buy. We will work from free materials:

● Course pack: I will provide you with a “course pack” that includes links to readings/videos, concepts, practice problems, and discussion/essay prompts for all topics in our course. This is your primary reference for the course: once you can confidently handle the material in the course pack, you will be well prepared for assessments! More detailed advice on this is in the pack itself.

● Lecture notes: although I won’t be delivering traditional lecture-style classes (in class we work on practice problems, core concepts, and discussion), my lecture slides will be posted on bCourses for you to refer to while working through the material. I recommend reading the notes, since they are quite concise and are the closest match for the style of questions I ask in the course pack.

● Readings: required and non-required readings from economics journals will be freely linked from the course pack document. There are three all-class required readings during the semester that I selected to help you engage with interdisciplinary conversation and critique of economic methodologies, and you will personally select one other reading on which you will present in section.

All other materials are strictly optional; I encourage you to use these as and when you need them to support your learning and understanding of the material, just like you would use an assigned textbook for reference. There is no special need to comprehensively work through everything

● Video handbook: the economics department at UCSD has developed a Video Handbook for Intermediate Microeconomics that is available to all of us in the UC system. This will serve as our primary textbook replacement from which you can either learn concepts in advance of class or reinforce them afterwards when you need it. You can access this via the Modules tab in bCourses. On the course pack you will see what videos I’ve suggested for each topic, but feel free to explore!

● Free textbook: the textbook “Models in Microeconomic Theory” by Martin Osborne and Ariel Rubinstein is freely available via this link. It is useful as a reference for many of our topics, although it can be a bit more advanced sometimes than we need.

If you do want to buy a textbook (for extra reference in this class or for your future studies in economics), I like Intermediate Microeconomics with Calculus by Hal Varian or Intermediate Microeconomics with Calculus by Allan Feldman and Roberto Serrano. I first learned microeconomics [redacted] years ago from the 6th edition of Varian and I still like it---you can often pick up old editions a lot cheaper than the new ones. In grad school I was a teaching assistant for Allan Feldman and Roberto Serrano was one of my Ph.D. advisors, so I know that book well too, and I have assigned it in the past before I moved away from asking students to buy expensive texts. I included Serrano and Feldman chapter references in the course pack just in case anyone wants to use that text.


Evaluation and Grading

Your grade will be determined by your performance on five quizzes (45%) (you must make a legitimate attempt at all five quizzes, but the lowest of the five scores will be dropped), three written responses to required readings (10%), a presentation on a reading (10%), and an essay-based final exam (30%) and preparatory essay plan assignment (5%). Let’s review each of these in turn:

● Quizzes: these will include (i) mathematical problems and (ii) short answer questions to test your understanding of concepts and ability to solve simple microeconomic models. You’ll have 40 minutes per quiz to write your answers and upload them as a single pdf. Late submissions lose 1 point plus 1 point per two minutes late. Quizzes will be administered via Gradescope, linked through bCourses, and will be held on Thursdays at 9pm and Fridays at 9am Pacific time (different versions, you choose which time to take). You may request exceptions if you have unavoidable conflicts with both of those times. Since we’re remote, quizzes will be open note---you may use your class materials, but no other outside materials.

● Reading responses: these are 300-500 word written responses to assigned journal articles. These will be evaluated on your engagement with the reading; I’m interested in what you personally took away from the reading (what surprised you, interested you, or confused you) rather than a summary of what you read. These will be submitted via bCourses.

● Presentation on a reading: in your discussion section, you will be paired with another student to pick one of the semester’s non-required readings, when it comes up in the course, deliver a 10 minute presentation on it to explain it to the rest of the class. This is designed to test your ability to explain economic research and ideas to other people and will be evaluated for clarity, coherence, and your ability to answer questions from the GSI or other students after your presentation. If you have an insurmountable constraint that prevents you from preventing live in your section, your GSI may make special arrangements at their discretion.

● Final exam: the final exam will consist of a list of essay prompts that cover the range of the whole course. You will select two prompts and write an essay on each. The prompts are subjective, argumentative questions, and you will be evaluated on (i) how well you demonstrated knowledge of underlying economic theory and applications and (ii) the clarity and quality of your argument. The final will last for 2hr 15min, and there is no required upper or lower word count limit. Like the quizzes, the final will be open note since we’re in a remote learning situation.

Essay plan: to help you to practice techniques for final exam prep, around the middle of the semester, in your discussion section, you will be assigned to a group to produce an essay plan of around 3 pages in response to a discussion question of your choice from the course pack. We will match you with another group for peer feedback to help strengthen your plan. The work for this may be done in section itself during the semester as you engage in group discussions.

To prepare for the assessments, our classes will be devoted to practice problems of the type that you’ll see on the quizzes and to review of key concepts. The quiz questions will not just be the same as the ones we practice, but instead will test your ability to apply the techniques and concepts we learn to novel problems. My advice is that if you can clearly and confidently explain each relevant core concept and technique to someone else, you are prepared to tackle the quizzes.

In discussion sections and also, if it’s logistically possible given how large our class is, in the live class we will engage in small group discussion of example essay prompts to practice creating essay plans for questions of the type you’ll see on the final exam. Together with the reading you do and the presentations you see other students deliver, this preparation will give you the practice and base of knowledge you need to succeed in constructing convincing arguments based on economic ideas. In sum: the goal is that by attending and participating in class and section you’ll be prepared for the tests!


Academic Integrity

Please be honest in your work for our class. If you’re worried about how the class is going for you, come and talk to me about it. I am always happy to work with you to help you to succeed.

The Honor Code adopted by the UC Berkeley student community says “[a]s a member of the UC Berkeley community, I act with honesty, integrity, and respect for others.” I expect you to hold up that commitment. To give two important examples, drawing from the Division of Student Affairs’ Academic Integrity website (https://sa.berkeley.edu/conduct/integrity): you must always identify original sources, words, or ideas that you use in your work, and you must submit your own individual and original work for individual assignments or the original work of your group collaboratively for any group assignments. If you need guidance about my expectations about academic integrity in any situation, please ask.

This is particularly relevant under remote learning since the quizzes and exam will be online. You may absolutely not share or discuss any quiz or exam questions or answers with anyone else for any reason until after the window to take the assessment has closed. The timed assessments are open note, but using outside sources like websites during the exam is not allowed. All work on the quizzes and exams must be your own, unassisted by anyone else. It’s extremely important to me that the assessments reflect your knowledge and understanding and no-one else’s, and to be fair to students who are honest in their work, evidence of cheating will be dealt with harshly. Cheating on a quiz or exam will result in an F for the course, and cheating will be reported to the Center for Student Conduct.


Course policies

● Live class: please have your video on in the live class if it’s technically feasible for you---it really, really helps me to see visual feedback and helps us to build community in discussions. I encourage you to use the chat box or the raise hand button to ask questions or make comments---I keep an eye on the chat box and address questions there as they come up.

● Communication: I will send messages to the class via bCourses Announcements and, for less important notes, Piazza. If you’d like to get bCourses Announcements by email, please make sure to check the relevant settings in your bCourses profile!

● Deadlines and extensions: I am always happy to give extensions on take-home work without penalty for any reason as long as you contact your GSI in advance with the request. To make sure we can grade and post solutions quickly, the maximum extension on any take-home work is 5 days. Please be specific about what extension you are asking for when you make your requests!

● Missing quizzes or exams: since the quizzes are time sensitive, we can offer extensions on them only in genuine emergency situations. Contact your GSI as soon as possible if you will be unable to take a quiz on the scheduled day, and we will make a decision about how to make it up.

● Piazza: I’ll set up a Piazza site for our class (linked through bCourses or sign up at https://piazza.com/berkeley/fall2021/econ100a). On Piazza you can post questions and respond to questions from other students. Please treat Piazza as you would treat email to me: be professional. The GSIs and I will monitor Piazza to answer questions when we can. It’s a good alternative to emailing me for help since we have a very large class, which limits my ability to quickly respond to email questions about coursework. Plus it lets us all support each other’s understanding of the material! Of course, you should definitely always feel free to email me anytime with questions or to chat about the course or economics in general, and I’ll reply as soon as I can.

● Workload: I expect you to work at least a couple of hours per class hour. This will include reading/watching material in advance and taking notes, responding to assignments, and reviewing and practicing material.

● Regrade requests: all regrade requests must be made in writing to your GSI within one week of getting a graded assessment back. In the case of clear mistakes (adding up scores or overlooking a question) it may be possible to make changes. Anything more substantive will result in a complete regrade of your whole assignment, and your score may go up or down as a result. I discourage you from submitting speculative regrade requests or requests based on matters of the subjective judgement of the grader---since we strive for consistency and fairness above all else when we grade, it is extremely important to me that we treat everyone’s work identically, and so we are unlikely to change decisions that have been commonly applied to all students’ work.


Tips for productive learning in this class

● When you read, listen to an explanation or demonstration, or discuss material with a group, take notes. Note-taking is the best way to help you remember the ideas you had at the time!

● Take notes beyond just what the material says. Jot down your own thoughts, criticisms of the material, connections to other topics in the course or knowledge that you have, questions for me or your fellow students, and so on. One extra useful way to take notes is to relate what you are studying to applications that you can think of from the real world.

● Taking more than one pass at the material and working through examples of graphs or maths are two great ways to help you to understand it well. Try reviewing tricky ideas or examples in more than one way (video handbook, my notes, free textbook, talking to me or your GSI) to get a couple of different perspectives.

● Always try a problem for yourself for a little while, but never try a problem by yourself for too long. If you’ve given it a shot and are really stuck, ask me, one of our wonderful GSIs, or your classmates. It is totally normal not to “get it” a lot of the time. Come to office hours! You can come with specific questions, to ask for general help or advice, or just to chat!

● If you want more practice problems beyond what is in the course pack, a great way to proceed is to try making up your own questions. This will really help you to understand the material better and may help you to anticipate the kind of twists that one can put on the plain versions of practice problems!


Academic support and tutoring

The Economics Department offers free tutoring for this course, held by grad students in the Department (https://www.econ.berkeley.edu/undergrad/home/tutoring). From that website you can also see the department’s list of private tutors for hire.

The Student Learning Center (https://slc.berkeley.edu/economics) is a great resource to help you when you feel you may benefit from academic support, and also offers specific tutoring for this course.

Students who may require academic accommodations should make the necessary arrangements as soon as possible. I strongly encourage anyone who feels they need such accommodations to work with the relevant office to get the support you need so that you can put yourself in the best position to succeed. The Academic Accommodations Hub (https://evcp.berkeley.edu/programs-resources/academic-accommodations-hub) can guide you.


Limits to Confidentiality

As University of California employees, all course instructors and tutors are “Responsible Employees”. This means that we are required to report incidents of sexual violence, sexual harassment, or other conduct prohibited by university policy to the Title IX officer---we cannot keep reports of sexual harassment or sexual violence confidential. However, the Title IX officer will consider requests for confidentiality after an incident has been reported. Confidential resources are available, including the PATH to Care Center (http://sa.berkeley.edu/dean/confidential-care-advocate), which serves survivors of sexual violence and sexual harassment.


Provisional course outline

A provisional list of topics for our course follows below. Each topic is roughly a week of class time, but that’s not set in stone. We will work methodically through the course pack, taking more or less time on each topic depending on how comfortable we are with it, so please stay alert to where we are in the pack so you can stay on top of reading and preparation.

1. Preferences and utility

2. The rational choice model

3. Demand

4. Applications of consumer theory

5. Choice under uncertainty

6. General equilibrium in an exchange economy

7. Producer theory

8. Perfect competition and partial equilibrium

9. General equilibrium with production

10. Monopoly and market power

11. Externalities

12. Public goods

13. Oligopoly theory

14. Markets with asymmetric information