DELAWARE COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE

SOCIAL SCIENCE AND PUBLIC SERVICE

SYLLABUS

This is a general syllabus for your information. To receive the one for your specific class call your instructor. You will receive a hard-copy for your class in the mail after registering for the distance learning course.

Professor Ali A. Ataiifar
Microeconomic Principles (ECO 220)

Telephone: 359-7360
Office: Room 3311

REQUIRED TEXTBOOK: See instructor

RECOMMENDED MATERIALS:

2. Lester Thurow, Head to Head, William Morrow & Company, Inc., 1992.

3. "The Wall Street Journal"; "Fortune" magazine; or any other financial magazine or newspaper. See your instructor for the subscription forms.

COURSE COMPETENCIES:

Successful completion of this course should enable the student to verbally, graphically and mathematically:

• Explain how elasticity and utility modify goods allocations.
• Relate short-run and long-run costs to the production decisions of firms.
• Distinguish and comparatively evaluate perfect competition, monopoly, monopolistic competition and oligopoly in terms of cost curves, profit maximizing and economic goals.
• Show how the factor markets are effected by supply, demand, economic rent, interest and profit.
• Explain market failure through the interaction of public and private sectors of the economy where externalities, public goods, poverty and growth are involved.
• Assess the significance of international trade and finance for the U.S. and world economics.

PREREQUISITE: Developmental Mathematics (MAT. 060) or equivalent placement test score.

*This is a non-technical book with no graphs or mathematical formulas. It talks about the lives, times, and ideas of the great economic thinkers.

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COURSE GRADING:

Homework/Participation 10%

Quizzes 20%

First Exam 20%

Second Exam 20%

Final Exam 30%

GRADING SCALE:

90-100 A

80-89 B

70-79 C

60-69 D

Below 60 F

THERE ARE NO MAKE-UP EXAMS! Only the lowest Quiz grade will be dropped.

HOMEWORK/PARTICIPATION:

There will be some homework assignments from the textbook at the end of each class. These assignments will be discussed in the beginning of the next class. Students are encouraged to participate in the discussion by relating and expressing their own views about economic issues and problems. In these discussions I will, at random, call upon students to provide their answers to the assigned questions. Failure to provide a related answer will result in reduction of student's grade by one point.

STUDY GUIDE:

Students are encouraged to answer the questions in the Study Guide corresponding to each chapter in the textbook. Answers to these questions are provided at the end of each chapter. A copy of the study guide is on reserve in the library.

ATTENDANCE:

See page 12 of the DCCC Student Handbook. Lateness and/or leaving the class early without obtaining prior permission will result in reduction of your grade by 1 point. Students are held responsible for all materials and assignments discussed and covered in the class; including those he/she might have missed because of not being in attendance.

**Final exam will be semi-comprehensive. There will be no make-up exams or quizzes.

Only the lowest quiz grade will be dropped.

DEADLINE FOR WITHDRAWALS IS: Call Registrar's Office. IF YOU DECIDE TO WITHDRAWL FROM THE COURSE, YOU MUST CONTACT THE RECORDS OFFICE, AND FILL OUT THE APPROPRIATE FORMS FOR THIS PURPOSE.

Microeconomics Principles ECO 220

COURSE CONTENTS:

I. An Introduction to Economics

1. The Nature and Method of Economics

Read Chapter 1

See Video Tape (VT) 1217A***,

"Resources & Scarcity..."****

2. The Economizing Problem

Scarcity-Choice-Opportunity Costs

Read Chapter 2

See VT 1225B, "Economic Efficiency..."

3. Demand and Supply

Law of Demand; Law of Supply;

Market Equilibrium

Read Chapter 3

See VT 1217B, "Markets and Prices..."

II. Microeconomics of Product Markets

1. Price Elasticity of Demand/Supply

Read Chapter 7

See VT 1224B, "Supply and Demand..."

2. Consumer Behavior

Theory of Consumer Choice

Law Diminishing Marginal Utility

Read Chapter 8

3. The Costs of Production

Economic Costs and Accounting Costs

Explicit Costs and Implicit Costs

Economic Profits and Normal Profits

Read Chapter 9

See VT 1224A, "The Firm..."

4. Price and Output Determination

Pure Competition

Profit Maximization: in the Short & Long Run

Read Chapter 10

See VT 1225A, "Perfect Competition and ..."

5. Price and Output Determination

Pure Monopoly

Barriers to Entry and Economies of Scale

Read Chapter 11

6. Price and Output Determination

Monopolistic Competition

Nonprice Competition

Read Chapter 12

7. Price and Output Determination

Oligopoly

Mutual Interdependence

Four Oligopoly Models

Read Chapter 13

III. Microeconomics of Resource Markets

1. Production and the Demand for Resources

Marginal Productivity Theory of Resource Demand

Read Chapter 14

See VT 1227B. "Labor and Management..."

2. Wage Determination

Read Chapter 15

3. Rent, Interest and Profits

Read Chapter 16

See VT 1228A, "Profits and Interest..."

Skip Chapter 17

IV. Government and Current Economic Problems (If time permits)

1. Government and Market Failure

Read Chapter 18

2. Public Choice Theory and Taxation

Read Chapter 19

3. Antitrust and Regulation

Read Chapter 20

4. Income Inequality and Poverty

Read Chapter 22

See VT 1228B, "Reducing Poverty..."

V. International Economics and the World Economy

1. Comparative Advantage and Protectionism

Read Chapter 24

See VT 1230A, "International Trade..."

2. Exchange Rates, The Balance of Payments, and Trade Deficit

Read Chapter 25

See VT 1230B, "International Finance..."

*** "A" means first half of VT; "B" means second half--after about 515 on VT counter.

**** "..." means words are omitted.

VIDEO-TAPES ARE ON RESERVE IN THE LIBRARY.

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