Interactive Syllabus

[you must read the syllabus]

Introduction

Course objectives. The course Seminar in microeconomics supplements the course Microeconomics 2. The main goal of the course is to deepen students' knowledge of microeconomic theory and improve their ability to apply the theory in practice.

Syllabus.  1. Introductory seminar • 2. Budget Constraint, Preferences and Utility • 3. Choice and Revealed Preferences • 4. Demand and Slutsky Equation • 5. Consumer's Surplus and Market Demand • 6. Uncertainty and Equilibrium • 7. Technology and Profit Maximization • 8. Cost Minimization and Cost Curves • 9. Firm Supply and Industry Supply • 10. Monopoly and Monopoly Behaviour • 11. Oligopoly • 12. Game Theory and Asymmetric Information

I will not add material, but--depending on several factors that I will evaluate--the program could be shortened and chapters could be dropped.

Learning outcomes. After completing the course, the student will be able to: - derive theoretical concepts from the field of consumer theory, firm theory, general equilibrium and asymmetric information theory; - apply microeconomic theory when solving stylized examples; - analyze real consumer decisions, competitive behavior and market results.

Study abroad. The course can be completed in case of study abroad (e.g. Erasmus). The exam can be taken after your return to Czechia; then, I can check your obligatory exercises too. Please contact me if you are studying abroad.

Contacts and meetings with students

My email is luca.fumarco@econ.muni.cz

My room is on the fifth floor, room 523, on the left corridor when you exit either of the two central lifts.

I do receive students in my office. However, the most suitable moment when to talk about courses related issues is during these seminars (i.e., MPE_ACMI). If you want to talk with me at a different moment, please contact me via email, and let's set up a meeting.

You can send me a message anytime and I usually answer within a couple of days. However, sometimes it takes longer or I simply miss your message (also, if you write to me with your private email, the email provider might automagically dump it in the spam/junk email; so, I recommend you use your muni email). If my answer takes too long to reach you, please send me a soft reminder via email or approach me during the lectures or seminars; never take my lack of a response as a deliberate act.

Topics schedule

1. Review of Mathematics (all exercises in the sheet), September 25th
   
2. Budget Constraint (mandatory exercises 2.1, 2.5, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 4.1 ; optional exercises), October 2nd
   
3. Choice and Revealed Preferences (mandatory exercises 5.1, 5.2, 5.4, 5.7, 7.1, 7.3, 7.6; optional exercises), October 9th
4. Demand and Slutsky Equation (mandatory exercises 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.6, 8.1, 8.4, 8.5; optional exercises), October 16th
5. Consumer's Surplus, Market Demand, and Equilibrium (mandatory exercises14.1, 14.3, 14.5, 15.0, 15.1, 16.1, 16.3; optional exercises), October 23th
   
6. Uncertainty (mandatory exercises 12.2, 12.9, 12.12, 12.13; optional exercises), October 30th
7. No lesson, study week, November 6th
8. Test 1, November 13th
9. Technology and profit maximization (mandatory exercises 18.0, 19.2, 19.16; optional exercises - only those on technology and profit), November 20th
10. Cost minimization and cost functions (mandatory exercises 20.1, 20.2, 20.3, 21.1, 21.2; optional exercises - only those on costs), November 27th
    
11. Firm Supply and Industry Supply  (mandatory exercises 22.1, 22.4, 22.8, 23.4, 23.5, 23.11), December 4th
12. Monopoly and Monopoly Behavior (mandatory exercises 24.1, 24.4, 25.1, 25.2, 25.7(a-h), 25.8; optional exercises), December 11th
13. Test 2 + Game theory and oligopoly (mandatory exercises 27.5, 27.4(a-c,g), 27.8, 28.1, 28.4 (a-e), 28.6; optional exercises), December 18th

This topic's schedule is suggestive of the seminars' progress and could be adjusted depending on how MPE_AMI2 proceeds.

Literature

BERGSTROM, Theodore C. and Hal R. VARIAN. Workouts in intermediate microeconomics. 8th ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2009. 562, 38. ISBN 9780393935158. info (EXERCISES BOOK)

Additional learning material

After the class (typically by the end of the week), I will make available to you seminar videos from 2020 .

Moreover, I could share with you step-by-step solutions that I wrote by hand (they might have typos or mistakes; this is not official material of the course and it represents notes that I use during the seminars, so be wise if you use them). This is additional material, that I am circulating on my own will and that comes from work in my own free time; ergo, I am free to decide not to make them available, for any reason I see fits.

Evaluation scale

This is a pass/fail course, there is no grade, only a credit.

Whether you pass or fail depends on your attendance at the seminars, and on whether and how you solve the mandatory and optional exercises.

To pass it, you need to have 60 points out of the maximum of 105 points.

There are two tests, each test is worth 30 points, whereas 42 points come from seminars attendance and work (more details below).

If your total number of points is less than 60 at the end of the semester, you may resit one of the tests. In the final evaluation, the points from the resit will be counted instead of the points from the chosen test.

To avoid a subjective evaluation, I do not round grades up if you are close to a cut-off or otherwise tweak grades. Please do not ask me to do this. Please note that I do not use a curve to grade your assignments or exams: your grade is in your hands only.

What if you need to revise math? When you signed up for this university and course, you provided documented evidence that your level of math is good enough. So, I will proceed through the lectures assuming that your level of calculus is really good enough, e.g., you know how to solve equations and inequalities, and how to compute derivatives and areas of basic geometric shapes (you will not need to compute integrals though).

Nonetheless, you might feel the need to revise your basics. Unfortunately, there are many students and I cannot help you with calculus. However, fray not: there is a math and stat support center that you can visit to receive support; they speak in English. Students from past years who benefitted from the services of this center were happy about the received support.

Badging-in

Attendance is compulsory and is part of your grade. I will automatically take attendance: before entering the classroom, you will have to pass your card on the sensor by the door, until you hear "beep." The sound gives you confirmation that the system has recorded your attendance, and I will see it on IS.

Do not badge-in behalf of your classmates. On random lessons, I will additionally personally take attendance: I will call out your name and take attendance on my paper spreadsheet. On top of that, I will compare my paper spreadsheet with what has been recorded by the system; in case of any discrepancy (e.g., your attendance is recorded by the system, but when I called your name you did no raise your hand or show your presence in other way), I will correct your system. Moreover, at the end of the course, I will deduct 3 additional points from you (badging in on behalf of someone else, for a course with compulsory attendance, is equivalent to cheating).

In-class activity and attendance

You can earn up to 36 points during the seminars, these points depend on your attendance and on the mandatory work. Below I explain how.

In every seminar, you may be asked once to solve an obligatory exercise (or a part of it). How you solve this (part of) exercise will determine how many points you gain:

• you gain 0 points each time you do not attend the seminar
• you gain 0 points if, when I ask you to come to the board, you refuse to come
• you gain 0 points if, when I ask you to come to the board, you come, and you solve the exercise completely wrong (i.e., the process you use to find the solution and the solution itself are wrong)
  
• you gain 1 point if, when I ask you to come to the board, you come, you solve the exercise correctly, but you do not explain what you are doing (you have to explain what you are writing: if you do not explain what you write, it looks like you have copied the exercise from someone else, or from something else--included step-by-step solutions that you obtained from students in previous years)
• you gain 2 points if, when I ask you to come to the board, you come, you solve the exercise, and the solution you get is wrong, but the process that you have explained is correct (e.g., this is the typical case where a student did the correct process, but made a computational mistake)
• you gain 3 points if, when I ask you to come to the board, you come, you solve the exercise, the solution you get is correct, and you have explained it

The above rules do not apply to the first seminar (Review of Mathematics). For that seminar, all the attendees will automatically receive 3 points (if you do not attend, you get 0 points).

It is impossible for me to have all of you come to the board on each lesson. Thus, whenever you attend, but are not asked to come to the board, you get 3 points. In order to be counted as an attendee, you have to badge in with your student card (the sensor that reads your card is right on the side of the door).

To make the 1h50' more bearable, we will have a 10' break in each seminar.

You can get 9 additional points if you solve the optional exercises. We will have rarely time to solve these exercises in class; so, if you do one or more of these optional exercises, come to me either during the break or at the end of the seminar and I will quickly check them on your papers.

There is no adjustment for students who cannot attend seminars because of work. Attendance to seminars is compulsory and graded.

Tests

How do tests look like? There are two tests. Each of them has 6 questions, a correct answer to each question is worth 5 points. Thus, if you respond correctly to each of the 6 questions in a test, you receive 30 points from that test. 

Problems in the test will be similar to the problems solved during the seminars. 

Tests content. Test 1 takes place over the first half of the lecture on November 13th and will include questions on material covered in lessons 1 to 6. Test 2 takes place over the first half of the lecture on December 18th and will include questions on material covered in lessons 9 to 13 (see schedule of topics). 

If you miss the test on the scheduled date and have a document from the MD in the information system, you can write the test on a later date.

Tests rules. Both tests will be closed book, closed notes tests. NO CELLPHONE IS ALLOWED; YOU HAVE TO BRING YOUR CALCULATOR. 

ADDITIONAL RULES: NO TALKING, NO LOOKING IN THE DIRECTION OF OTHER PEOPLE'S EXAM. THE FIRST TIME YOU BREAK ANY OF THESE RULES, I GIVE YOU A WARNING, BUT ON THE SECOND TIME I WILL TAKE YOUR EXAM AND YOU WILL GET 0 FOR THAT TEST. In general, any copying, recording or leaking tests will lead to the same result: YOU WILL GET 0. If you have to ask something to a classmate (e.g., some water, a tissue), you first rise your hand and tell me that you have to do so.

The above rules apply to any unauthorized tool, aid and communication device, or other disruptions of objectivity of credit tests will be considered non-compliance with the conditions for course completion as well as a severe violation of the study rule (see the link at the bottom of the page)

Your wrong answers do not reduce your grade, they simply count as a 0; thus, if you are not sure about what to answer, just pick one of the answers: do not be tempted to break any of the above rules.

What is the relationship between MPE_AMI2 and MPE_ACMI?

During the lessons for MPE_AMI2, we will focus on the theory, while during the seminars for MPE_ACMI, we will focus on the exercises. As you see from the sample test, the exam for MPE_AMI2 will include both theoretical questions and exercises. Thus, although MPE_AMI2 is separate from the seminars (i.e., MPE_ACMI), the seminars will help you learn the tools to pass MPE_ACMI.

Could exercise banks (those used for tests and in-class activities) contain errors?

Please note that your tests and assignments in this course are usually multiple-choice quizzes that come from standardized test banks from one of the most famous intermediate microeconomics books in the world. Mistakes are very rare and there is no space for arbitrary decisions on whether an answer is correct or not.

The policy of zero tolerance for academic dishonesty will be strictly applied.