ECON 2010 Principles of Microeconomics

Instructor Contact:

Alpna Bhatia, PhD

Email: alpna.bhatia@colorado.edu

About the Course:

This course examines basic concepts of microeconomics or the behavior and the interactions of individuals, firms and government. Topics include determining economic problems, how consumers and businesses make decisions, how markets work, and how they fail and how government actions affect markets.

Hybrid Course Structure:

“Hybrid” is used to describe courses in which some traditional face-to-face “seat time” has been replaced by online learning activities. The purpose of a hybrid course is to take advantage of the best features of both face-to-face and online learning. A hybrid course is designed to integrate face-to-face and online activities so that they reinforce, complement, and elaborate one another. Expect to complete weekly online pre-class and post-class activities. The weekly class session will be no longer than 2-hours.

Course Prerequisites:
None

Objectives:

Upon completion of the course, students should be able to

• Define the basic economic terms presented.
• Distinguish between different economic terms and concepts and recognize how those concepts apply to different economic problems.
• Analyze different economic principles and use those principles to differentiate between the illogical and the sensible, between the misleading use of statistics, misleading anecdotal evidence, and the reasonable presentation of information.
• Synthesize the information given in each section to explain key concepts and set up and solve problems that utilize the economic principles.
• Acquire the ability to think about complex economic issues in a logical objective manner, so that you discriminate between correct solutions to economic problems, and common misconceptions.
• Evaluate different economic arguments and interpret the reasons why some are well-founded, while others are not.

Required Texts:

• Principles of Microeconomics 8th edition with MindTap, by N. Gregory Mankiw. MindTap is the website where you will read your textbook and complete some graded assignments. You will access MindTap through our course website, Canvas. You will have a free MindTap trial for the first two weeks of class before having to purchase it.

Grading (out of 1000 points):

• Pre-class work (220 POINTS) – There will be two different kinds of assignments due in preparation for each week’s class session: LearnSmart Quizlets (small quizzes), and Writing. Your lowest one (1) of each of these assignments is dropped from your final grade calculation. These assignments are open book and open note and will be submitted through Canvas. See the class schedule for due dates. These assignments are always due on Monday, the day before class, at 11:59pm.
• In-class work (110 POINTS) – You will earn points in class through answering Clicker questions and participating in class activities.
• Mini-Paper (50 POINTS) – ONCE, during in class, you will write and present a mini-paper which will have a summary and application of a microeconomic topics.
• Problem Sets (220 POINTS) – There will be twelve (12) 20-point problem sets. The format of the problem sets will be multiple choice, calculations, and short answers and will be open book and open notes. Your lowest one (1) problem set is dropped from your final grade calculation. Problem sets will be submitted through Canvas or Mindtap and are due by midnight FRIDAY after we meet for class.
• Exams (400 POINTS) – There will be two (2) exams. The midterm exam is worth 150 points and the proctored cumulative final exam is worth 250 points. The format of the exam will be multiple choice and calculations and will be closed book. You may use a calculator. The exams are held, in class, in week 7 and 14.