Drew Parkes' Intermediate Microeconomic Theory Assignments Page

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Course Assignments:

Week 16

May 14, 2007  3:00 pm - Final Exam - All Chapters Covered

Week 15

May 7, 2007  Review Input Demand-Supply, Monopoly case and Monopsony

• Chapter 16:  Input Demand Curve of a Competitive Firm
• Industry and Market Demand Curves
• The Supply of Inputs
• Review Perfect Competitive Case
• Monopoly Case
• Monopsony Case
• Review for the Final - ONE WEEK!

May 9, 2007  Chapter 17: Wages and the Backward Bending Supply Curve

• Finish Monopsony Case
• Chapter 17: Wages
• Income-Leisure Choice - review
• Changes in the wage rate
• Backward Bending Supply curve for labor
• From Wikipedia:
  • History of the ACBSP - As of 2006, ACBSP had 403 members with 297 accredited institutions.
  • History of the AACSB - More than 500 schools accredited by AACSB around the world.
• Official Sites: ACBSP and AACSB
• SOBA at Fort Lewis College - notice the seal at the bottom of the page.
  • SOBA is the acronym for the School of Business Administration

May 11, 2007  Chapter 14 and 15: Misc Topics Missed

• Natural Monopoly
• Asymmetric Information
• Adverse Selection and Moral Hazard
• Final Review - Revisited

Week 14

April 30, 2007  Catch-up Day

May 2, 2007  Chapter 14: Game Theory

• Chapter 14: Game Theory
• A Simple Game: the rules
• Dominant Strategies
• Nash Equilibrium
• Prisoner's Dilemma Game
• Cheating in a Cartel (Begun)

May 4, 2007  Chapter 16: Employment and Pricing of Inputs

• Chapter 16:  Input Demand Curve of a Competitive Firm
• One Variable Input
• All Inputs Variable
• Industry and Market Demand Curves
• The Supply of Inputs

Week 13

April 23, 2007  Chapter 12: Product Pricing with Monopoly Power

• Chapter 12: Product Pricing with Monopoly Power
• Price Discrimination: First, Second and Third Degree
• Three necessary conditions for Price Discrimination

April 25, 2007  Chapter 13: Monopolistic Competition 

• Chapter 13: Monopolistic Competition
• Price and Output
• Efficiency and Further Implications

April 27, 2007  Chapter 13: Oligopoly 

• Oligopoly
• Oligopoly and the Cournot Model
• Reaction Curves
• Stackleberg Model
• Dominant Firm Model
• Cartels and Collusion

Week 12

April 16, 2007  Finish Chapter 11: Monopoly

• Elasticity and Mark-up, Vail, Breckenridge and inelastic demand curves
• Price Discrimination and Skiing!

April 18, 2007   Test Corrections Day

• Complete Test 3 corrections
• Question #4: Consumer Surplus, Profit, and Dead Weight Loss

April 20, 2007  Chapter 12: Product Pricing with Monopoly Power

• Public Policy towards Monopoly
• Regulation of Price

  Week 11

April 9, 2007  Finish Chapter 10: Applications & Chapter 11: Monopoly

• Chapter 10:  
• Excise tax - continued
• Tax Incidence - Who bears the burden of the tax
• Chapter 11: Demand and Marginal Revenue for a Monopoly

April 11, 2007  Chapter 11: Monopoly continued

• Chapter 11: Demand and Marginal Revenue for a Monopoly
• Profit Maximizing Output of a Monopoly
• Further Implications
• Sources of Monopoly Power

April 13, 2007  Test III: Chapters 7 - 11: Monopoly

• Perfect Competition versus Monopoly - loss of efficiency, DWL 

Week 10

April 2, 2007  Chapter 9: Perfect Competition finishing 

• Finish Short-run Profit and Loss
• Long-Run Industry Supply Curve
  • Increasing-Cost Industry

April 4, 2007  Chapter 9: Perfect Competition finished

• Long-Run Industry Supply Curve
  • Decreasing-Cost Industry
  • Constant-Cost Industry
• When does the Perfectly Competitive Model Apply?

April 6, 2007  Chapter 10: Using the Competitive Model

• Chapter 10:  Consumer and Producer Surpluses
• Excise tax
• Tax Incidence - Who bears the burden of the tax

Week 9

March 26, 2007  Chapter 8: The Cost of Production continued

• A little algebra
• Geometry of Cost Curves
• Long-Run Cost of Production
• Isocost lines
• Least Costly Input Combinations
• Expansion Path
• Input price changes and Cost Curves
• Long-Run Cost Curves

March 28, 2007  Chapter 9: Profit Maximization in a Competitive Industry

• Chapter 9:  The Assumptions of Perfect Competition
• Profit Maximization, MR = MC
• Price Taker and the perfectly elastic demand curve
• Short-run Profit Max
• Long-Run Equilibrium - side by side graphs of the firm and market

March 30, 2007  Chapter 9: Profit Maximization in a Competitive Industry continued

• SR Profit, Loss and zero economic profit
• The Short-Run Supply Curve for a Perfectly Competitive Firm
• See Figs. 9.4 and 9.5, page 248-9
• Long-run Competitive Equilibrium and zero economic profit, pages 256-60

Week 8

March 19, 2007  Chapters 3 and 4: The Calculus and Algebra of Consumer Theory 

• Utility maximization subject to a budget constraint
  • The Marginal Rate of Substitution from the Utility Function
  • The price ratio from the budget constraint
  • The full Lagrangian functional form, MRS = price ration, bang for the buck and demand curve
• The Cobb-Douglas Functional form using the above calculus to find the demand curves

March 21, 2007  Chapter 7: Production and Productivity

• Chapter 7:  The Law of Diminishing Returns and Geometry revisited
• Quiz on Production curves (Average and Marginal Products of Labor)
• Production when all inputs are variable
• Isoquants
• MRTS - like MRS
• Returns to Scale

March 23, 2007  Chapter 8: The Cost of Production

• Short-Run Cost
  • Variable Cost
  • Fixed Cost
  • Fixed versus Sunk
• Marginal and Variable Cost cruves

MARCH 12 - 16, 2007     SPRING BREAK - ENJOY!!!

Week 7

March 5, 2007  Finish Chapter 6 and Discuss Sections of Chapter 5 and review for Test 2 

• Chapter 6:  The Contract Curve and Efficiency
• Competitive Equilibrium
• Review for the Test
• Chapter 5:
• Total Benefit and Marginal Benefit
• Excise Subsidies, Health Care and Consumer Welfare
• Lump-sum Transfer

March 7, 2007  Test 2:  Chapters 4, 5 and 6

March 9, 2007  Chapter 7: Production

• Review Test 2
• Production when Only One Input is Variable: The Short Run
  • Total, Average and Marginal Product Curves
  • The Geometry of the Curves
  • The Law of Diminishing Returns

Week 6

February 26, 2007  Chapter 4:  From Individual to Market Demand

• Excise Tax and Tax plus Rebate
• Income and Substitution Effects: Inferior Goods
• The Giffen Good
• Summing the Individual Demands
• Consumer Surplus
• Do Review Questions and Problems 4.4 and 4.6 on page 118 for Wednesday.
• The substitution effects and income effects of price changes are on the h: drive.
  • FYI - to learn how to use the k (or h) drive off campus, click here.

February 28, 2007  Chapter 5: Using Consumer Choice Theory - Minimum Wage Discussion

• Review Questions and Problems 4.4 and 4.6 
• Discuss minimum wage - inflation adjustment consequences
• Discuss last week's Presidential radio address on health care

March 2, 2007  begin Chapter 6: Exchange, Efficiency and Prices

• Chapter 6: Two-Person Exchange
• The Edgeworth Box
• Gains from Trade
• The Contract Curve and Efficiency
• Competitive Equilibrium

Week 5

February 19, 2007  WINTER BREAK - Enjoy! 

February 21, 2007  Chapter 4: Individual Demand Curve Derived

• Return the test and discuss
• MRS NOT equal to the price ratio

February 23, 2007  Chapter 4: Income and Substitution Effects

• "Bang for the Buck" problem and a few others
• MRS NOT equal to the price ratio
• Figure 4.1: Derivation of the Consumer's Demand Curve
• Income and Substitution Effects of a Price Reduction

Week 4

February 12, 2007  Chapter 3: Income Consumption Curve and Individual Demand Curves

• Income Consumption Curve and Shifts in the Demand for a Good, Normal and Inferior Goods
• Corner solutions - zero demand for one of the goods
• MRS = Price Ratio
• Ratio of the Marginal Utilities equals the Price Ratio
• "Bang for the Buck"

February 14, 2007  Chapter 3: The Theory of Consumer Choice continued

• Problems 3.1, 8 and 9
• Do problems on MRS and Consumer Optimum
• Review for the Test

February 16, 2007  Test I:  Chapters 1 - 3 

Week 3

February 5, 2007  Chapter 3: The Theory of Consumer Choice

• Price elasticity of Supply
• The Appendix - the relationship between total expenditures and price elasticity of demand
• Chapter 3:  Consumer Preferences
  • Three assumptions about preferences
  • Goods and Bads
  • CHALLENGE THE ASSUMPTIONS:  Bring an example of a good in which less is preferred to more for 5 pts, Due Wednesday.

February 7, 2007  Chapter 3: The Theory of Consumer Choice continued

• Problem Set I due today.
• Chapter 3:  Consumer Preferences continued
  • Indifference Curves
  • Marginal Rate of Substitution (MRS) - Curvature of Indifference Curves
  • Diminishing MRS
• The Budget Constraint

February 9, 2007  Chapter 3: Consumer Optimum

• Consumer Optimum 
• The Composite Good

Week 2

January 29, 2007  Chapter 2: The dynamics of Supply and Demand Shifts

• Shifts
• Rent Control
• Minimum Wage
• Elasticities - an introduction, inelastic and elastic

January 31, 2007  Chapter 2 Elasticities continued

• Price elasticity of demand - unit elastic, inelastic and elastic
• Calculations using the point and arc elasticity formulas
• Problem Set I, due February 7 for 20 points.

February 2, 2007  Chapter 2 Elasticities continued

• Determinants of price elasticity of demand
• Income elasticity of demand
• Cross price elasticity

Week 1

January 22, 2007     Introduction to the course

• Syllabus and Outline discussion
• Assign Chapter 1 

January 24, 2007     Chapter 1: 

• Read Chapter 1.
• Read Chapter 2: Demand and Supply
• Start PPPPINT
• Do Problem 1.8 for 5 points for Friday.

January 26, 2007     Chapter 2: Demand and Supply Continued, Problem 1.8 is due

• PPPPINT - Demand mnemonic 
• PPPEST - Supply
• The three conditions in a market
• The dynamic pressure put on a price due to a ceteris paribus change

[Home Page] - [Drew's MSC Page] - [MSC - Dept. Bus. Adm.] - [MSC]

email: drew (at) drewparkes.com
Last Update: May 11, 2007
By Andrew L. H. Parkes, Ph. D.