Questions about the course material, problem sets and exercises:

There is a CANVAS discussion forum for questions on the course material to ensure that everyone shares the information. Please submit any questions you may have with your study in this forum. All the queries are answered in due time. In addition, questions which answer can be found in this manuscript (the syllabus) will receive NO reply via email. Asking questions is a good thing, but the timing of your questions is also important. Please do NOT pose your questions or concerns right before (for instance in the late evening or early morning) of a quiz or the final exam. Also, please consult first the syllabus as most of your questions or concerns have already been addressed in this handout. Any type of personal inquiry should be done via email. Expect to receive a response to your emails within 48 hours.

Prerequisites

ECON 100A/H100A/105A and Math 2B (see the university website for further details.)

Description

Econ 100B is the second in the three-sequence on intermediate economic theory. In this course you will learn about topics such as monopolistic competition, game theory, oligopoly, factor markets, general equilibrium, and market failures.

Course Materials:

Recommended Textbooks

Robert S. Pindyck and Daniel L. Rubinfeld. Microeconomics, 9th Edition, Prentice Hall.Other editions of this text are readily available on Amazon.com and other used book sites. You are responsible for material in the 9th  edition.

Posted Material

All available class materials will be posted in the UCI- CANVAS system. All information posted on the course site or announced at the beginning of each lecture class is assumed to be common knowledge, and it remains the student responsibility to be updated.

Please note that neither the textbook nor the posted slides are intended to be a substitute for the lectures. The most efficient way to dowell in this course is to attend all class meetings.

Please be aware that slides used in class and those posted on CANVAS may differ. Students perform better if they take notes during class and use them to study for quizzes and homework than if they use notes for only one of these purposes.

Attendance:

Attending lectures and Discussion Sections are highly recommended. Homework and Quizzes are solved during discussion sections. No solutions will be posted on canvas for any of the homework and quizzes open questions. Homework solutions are provided during discussion sections.

Grading:

Quizzes: There are 2 mandatory individual in-class quizzes. Quizzes are non-cumulative, closed book and closed notes. Each quiz is 1h20 minutes. There will be NO quiz make-ups. If a student misses a quiz, a grade 0 is assigned to it. Past quizzes will NOT be made available on canvas.

Please keep in mind that if a student misses a mandatory element of the course a legitimate excuse and a written official proof for your absence needs to be provided (e.g. medical or hospital official note, official death certificate, official residence reallocation document etc) no later than 24h max from the start time of the mandatory assignment via email to the instructor. Please keep in mind that just providing an email with a written explanation or stating that you had a family emergency are not sufficient to justify the absence. If an official proof is not provided to the instructor a ZERO grade is automatically assigned to the quiz.

Homework: There are 7 mandatory homework. However, we drop from the overall course grade the two worst HW grade. There are no HW makeups.

Group Project (groups of 5 students) - Please refer to separate guidelines to be posted on canvas during Week #1: You and your classmates will be graded on a mandatory group project. The output delivery for this project is just an 8-page (maximum) report/paper. The deadline to submit your group report is Friday March 15th by 10 amin the group leader TA´soffice.

•   January 19th - Deadline to submit your group composition. If you cannot find 5 students, there is no problem. Just submit whatever you have and then we will fill in any empty space. Students without groups will be randomly allocated to groups.

•   February 1st - We post groups composition and assigned topics under FILES > GROUP PROJECT > Group composition. Each group will have access to the group leader email. It is your responsibility to send an email to your group leader so that arrangements for a meeting is made. Make sure you know all the elements of your group by February 8th. If you have any issues finding your group elements, please email your TA. DO NOT LEAVE THIS UNTIL THE LAST WEEK OF THE QUARTER. If you do so, you may not have time to find your group members and/or do a good project.

•   March 5th   - Instructor hold anon-mandatory extra class to help groups with their projects. Everyone is welcome to attend and bring their groups questions.

•   March 14th    - Deadline to  submit the individual peer evaluation to the instructor at the beginning of lecture class. Make sure you STAPLE your work.

•   March  15th     - Deadline to submit the group project. Groups must submit a STAPLED PRINTED paper copy of the group project report/paper no later than 10am in the leader´s TA office. Please keep in mind that we do NOT accept submissions via email (unless there is an emergency and this emergency is well documented).

The penalty structure for late submission of the project is as follows:

•    1 day late - will have a 5% of the grade allocated deducted

•   2 days late - will have a 15% of the grade allocated deducted

•   3 days late - will have a 25% of the grade allocated deducted

•   4 days late - will have a 40% of the grade allocated deducted

•   5 days late - will have a 100% of the grade allocated deducted

The prize structure for the best group project is as follows:

•   Best group project - will have 3 extra unweighted points in the overall grade of the course.

•   Second-Best group project - will have 2 extra unweighted points in the overall grade of the course.

•   Third-Best group project - will have 1 extra unweighted points in the overall grade of the course.

If there is a tight between groups then the extra unweighted points will be split across the winning teams. All the group evaluation grades done by their peers will only be made public after the final group presentation.

IMPORTANT: Note that your individual grade for the group project will also be weighted by the overall grade assigned to you by the other members of the group (a separate peer evaluation sheet will be provided on Canvas for this purpose). After the submission of the group project report, individual members will submit a grade for each of the other members of your group along with a brief explanation describing your reasoning. This individual evaluation must be submitted directly to the instructor on March 14th at the beginning of lecture class. The purpose of having student assigned grades is to ensure that all students contribute to the success of the group.

ALL  STUDENT  ASSIGNED   GRADES  WILL  BE  KEPT  STRICTLY  CONFIDENTIAL; UNLESS YOU DISCUSS YOUR GRADING WITH YOUR COLLEAGUES, NO STUDENT WILL KNOW HOW ANYONE ELSE ASSIGNED GRADES.

Extra Credit #1: Students receive an extra credit of 1 unweighted point if they read the syllabus and complete the syllabus quiz by January 25th.

Extra Credit #2:   Students receive an extra credit of 2 unweighted points if they complete the course evaluation.

Extra Credit #3: There is no final exam for this course. However, a take home non-mandatory extra credit with 2 unweighted points will be made available on canvas on Thursday, March 21st between 1.30pm and 3.30pm. Late submissions are not acceptable.

Calculation of Overall Grade:

25% Quiz 1 + 30% Quiz 2 + 15% SUM of the five best HW grades + 30% Group project + Extra Credit #1 (if done) + Extra Credit # 2 (if done) + Extra Credit #3 (if done) + Prize (if in winning team).

Grading Scale: The grading scale in this course (on 0-to- 100-point scale) will be as follows:

98- 100 = A+

90-97.9 = A

80-89.9= A-

75-79.9= B+

70-74.9 = B

65-69.9 = B-

60-64.9= C+

55-59.9 = C

50-54.9 = C-

40-49.9 = D+

30-39.9 = D

Below 29.9 = F

Attendance, cell phones, photography and videography:

•   Attendance is NOT mandatory. However, keep in mind that you will be responsible for all the material covered in class that is not available in the text or elsewhere. Please ask questions if there are things you do not understand.

•   Please get notes from someone else if you miss class. I may or may not post all lecture notes.

•   Please turnoff your cellphones or put them on vibrate and be courteous tome and your fellow students in your use of other electronic devices.

•   Do NOT engage in photography or videography; this will result in grade penalty.

Academic Dishonesty

Please be aware of UCI rules regarding academic dishonesty.

•    Students     engaged     in     academic     dishonesty     are      subject     to     two     distinct penalties: academic and administrative.

•   The minimum academic penalty  for  cheating  on  a homework assignment, quiz, group project  or  extra  credit  is  a  zero  grade  for  the  assignment  in  question  and  the maximum academic penalty will be a failing grade for the course.

•   Additional administrative  penalties may  be  imposed  by  the  university.  I  will  report suspected cheaters to the Office of Academic Integrity & Student Conduct. Review the university’spolicies at:https://aisc.uci.edu/.

•   Examples of cheating behavior include:

- cellphone or smartwatch use during in-class tests or quizzes;

- google homework solutions and copy those solutions as their own work;

- plagiarism of group projects or homework;

- use of artificial intelligence to complete HW or Group Projects;

- copying from another student during an examination or allowing another to copy your work;

- unauthorized collaboration on a take home assignment or examination;

- using notes during a closed book examination;

- taking an examination for another student, or asking or allowing another student to take an examination for you.

Tentative schedule (Subject to Change According to Course Progress)