Instructor: Dr. Bharat Bhole
Email: bharat.bhole@rit.edu
Office Hours:
1:45pm-2:45pm every Monday and Wednesday, and with appointment.
Office hours will be conducted in-person, as well as virtually using
zoom. The necessary details about Zoom URL and/or Meeting ID
will be communicated using mycourses or the mystudybook class website
(details about the latter will be provided in the coming days).
The objective of this course is to introduce you to the basic concepts and tools used by economists for understanding, predicting and evaluating consumer, business and government decisions and the consequences of these decisions.
Knowledge and skills gained in this course will enable you to think systematically about the impact that alternative business policies, government policies and legal rules can have have on markets and their constituents.
Further, Microeconomics provides the foundation for study of many other sub-disciplines in economics and the field of business. The techniques and the material that you learn in this course will be useful in other economics and business classes that you may take in future.
I expect you to learn the material using the following
resources:
(1) the written slides/notes that I will post,
(2) the in-person class sessions, and
(3) the office hours (either scheduled or by appointment).
Make sure to read the slides/notes carefully. Attending class is not a substitute for reading the notes.
It is important that you don't hesitate to contact me whenever you have any questions. Use office hours and class sessions to get your questions answered. You will understand the material much better if you do so, and will enjoy learning the material more.
All quizzes and exams will be held online. I will give more information about the website in the class in the first week. There will be three kinds of activities to test your understanding: PracticeQuizzes, Quizzes and a comprehensive Final Exam.
What are the main objectives?
What are basic ingredients of the standard mainstream economics approach?
Opportunity costs, implicit costs and explicit costs
Why study Microeconomics?
Individual demand and Market demand. Graphical, tabular and algebraic representation of demand.
Willingness-to-pay and Consumer Surplus.
Changes in Demand: normal goods, inferior goods, complements and substitutes.
Individual supply and Market supply. Graphical, tabular and algebraic representation of Supply.
Producer Surplus.
Changes in Supply.
Significance of demand and supply responsiveness to price.
Measuring responsiveness: slope and elasticity.
Price elasticity of demand - definition and formula. Relationship between price elasticity and total revenue. Cross elasticity and Income elasticity of demand. Factors affecting elasticity of demand.
Price elasticity of supply. Factors affecting elasticity of supply.
Relationship between Input and Output: Short-run and Long-run relationship. Total product, Average product and Marginal product. Law of Diminishing returns.
Relationship between Output and Costs: Total cost, Average cost, Marginal cost, Fixed cost and Variable cost
Marginal product, Law of Diminishing returns and Marginal cost
Perfect Competition, Monopolist Competition, Oligopoly and Monopoly
Factors contributing to creation of monopolies.
Price and output determination in a single-price monopoly.
Comparing social surplus in a Monopoly and in a competitive market.
Comparing the effect of price ceiling in a Monopoly and a competitive market.
Price discrimination.
There is no required textbook for this class. I will be using slides/notes that I have prepared and will be sharing these with you. However, you may find it beneficial to have a textbook to read further on the topics we cover and to improve your understanding. A textbook will also give you additional practice problems. For that I am recommending a textbook below. If you already have another Principles of Microeconomics textbook, you can use that.
Microeconomics by Michael Parkin (10th edition or any more recent edition). A specific edition is not that important. What is important is that you have some edition.
Your grade will be based on PracticeQuizzes, Quizzes and the Final exam. The PracticeQuizzes will account for 10% of the final grade and the quizzes will account for 75% of the final grade. There will be about 6 quizzes. The final exam will be comprehensive, and will account for 15% of the final grade. All of the above — PracticeQuizzes, Quizzes and the Final exam — will all be administered online at https://mystudybook.app. More information about the platform will be provided in the coming days. You will be given at least 3 days to answer and submit each quiz and the final exam, which will be plenty of time given the number of questions in each exam. Quizzes and Final exam will be take-home. The minimum 3-day duration does not apply to PracticeQuizzes. For example, you may get only a day for them, or you may even have to do them during the class. The final exam will be posted on December 8. The practice-questions and quizzes will be posted as we complete the topics.
Based on your final score, the letter grades will be assigned in the following manner:
| Final score | Letter Grade |
|---|---|
| 94 and above | A |
| 88-93 | A- |
| 83-87 | B+ |
| 77-82 | B |
| 72-76 | B- |
| 66-71 | C+ |
| 61-65 | C |
| 56-60 | C- |
| 50-55 | D |
| Less than 50 | F |
For this course, a reliable and consistent internet connection is required. A problem with your Internet access may not be used as an excuse for late, missing, or incomplete coursework. If you experience problems with your Internet connection while working on this course, it is your responsibility to find an alternative Internet access point, such as a public library or Wi-Fi hotspot.
RIT is committed to providing academic adjustments to students with disabilities. If you would like to request academic adjustments such as testing modifications due to a disability, please contact the Disability Services Office. Contact information for the DSO and information about how to request adjustments can be found at www.rit.edu/dso. After you receive academic adjustment approval, it is imperative that you contact me as early as possible so that we can work out whatever arrangement is necessary.
RIT is committed to providing a safe learning environment, free of harassment and discrimination as articulated in our university policies located on RIT's governance website . RIT’s policies require faculty to share information about incidents of gender based discrimination and harassment with RIT's Title IX coordinator or deputy coordinators when incidents are stated to them directly. The information you provide to a non-confidential resource which includes faculty will be relayed only as necessary for the Title IX Coordinator to investigate and/or seek resolution. Even RIT Offices and employees who cannot guarantee confidentiality will maintain your privacy to the greatest extent possible.
If an individual discloses information during a public awareness event, a protest, during a class project, or advocacy event, RIT is not obligated to investigate based on this public disclosure. RIT may however use this information to further educate faculty, staff and students about prevention efforts and available resources.
If you would like to report an incident of gender based discrimination or harassment directly you may do so by using the online Sexual Harassment, Discrimination and Sexual Misconduct Reporting or anonymously by using the Compliance and Ethics Hotline.
If you have a concern related to gender-based discrimination and/or harassment and prefer to have a confidential discussion, assistance is available from any of RIT’s confidential resources see the list of confidential resources listed here.
As an institution of higher learning, RIT expects students to behave honestly and ethically at all times, especially when submitting work for evaluation in conjunction with any course or degree requirement. The Department of Economics encourages all students to become familiar with the RIT Honor Code and with RIT’s Academic Integrity Policy
I have provided this syllabus as guide to our course and have made every attempt to provide an accurate overview of the course. However, as instructor, I reserve the right to modify this document during the semester, if necessary, to ensure that we achieve course learning objectives. You will receive advance notice of any changes to the syllabus through myCourses/email.