B01.1303, Spring 2009
Mondays
Office Hours: Mon.
Voice: (212) 998-0864, Fax: (212) 995-4218
e-mail: economides@stern.nyu.edu
www: http://www.stern.nyu.edu/networks/
course page: http://www.stern.nyu.edu/networks/MicroSpring2009M.html
Text and Notes
R. S. Pindyck and D. L. Rubinfeld, Microeconomics, Seventh Edition, (Pearson, 2008). There is an accompanying Study Guide with additional exercises and review materials (not required).
My notes, available at the bookstore and at http://www.stern.nyu.edu/networks/micnotes/micnotes.html,
provide you with a detailed outline of the material and are complementary to
the main text. You will also be receiving occasional supplementary notes and
solved exercises. Articles from the Financial Times, the NY Times,
the Wall Street Journal, and the Economist will illustrate the
application of our course to current events.
Coursework
There will be weekly homeworks. They will be handed in and graded. Homeworks will count for 10% of the total grade. Outlines of solutions will be distributed. Your tutor, Anukaran Agrawal, anukaran.agrawal@stern.nyu.edu , phone (917) 287-4992, will be available to help you with the exercises. You will have a chance to discuss the weekly exercises with him and get prepared to solve them. Your tutor will hold a weekly review session right after class (starting on the second week of classes). He will also hold other tutoring hours (to be announced). The midterm and the final exam will consist mainly of exercises of the same sort as the ones in the homeworks. The midterm and the final will be count for 45% of the final grade each.
Outline and Reading Assignments.
You are expected to read the assigned chapters before the lecture. The assignments correspond roughly to weeks.
1. Consumption Choices of the Individual. Chapter 3.
2. Individual and Market Demand. Chapter 4, except 136-140. Chapter 2, pp. 34-61.
3. Choice under Uncertainty. Chapter 5.
4. Technology of Production. Chapter 6. Production Costs. Chapter 7.
5. Profit Maximization. Competitive Market Supply. Chapter 8.
6. Supply and Demand in Competitive Markets. Chapter 9.
7. Monopoly. Chapter 10, except pp. 373-381. Price Discrimination. Chapter 11. Midterm Exam.
8. Game Theory. Strategic Choice. Chapter 13. Oligopoly. Chapter 12, pp. 449-475. Monopolistic competition. Chapter 12, pp. 443-448.
9. Pricing of Factors of Production. Labor Supply. Chapter 14. Pricing of Capital. Evaluation of Projects. Chapter 15.
10. Economic Efficiency. Chapter 16.
11. Failures of Competitive Markets. Asymmetric Information. Chapter 17.
12. Positive externalities in high technology markets. Networks. Microsoft case.