Syllabus for
Economics 603
Daniel R. Vincent: Fall 2014 |
|
Official
Matters
Economics 603 is the first half of the Economics Department’s two-semester core sequence in Microeconomics. This course is taken by all first-year Economics Ph.D. students, as well as by quite a few Ph.D. students in Agricultural & Resource Economics, the Smith School of Business, and other academic departments. The first half of the semester treats consumer theory and the theory of the firm. The second half of the semester is an introduction to game theory and its applications in economics. The first half of this course will be taught by Professor Daniel R. Vincent. The final half will be taught by Professor Larry Ausubel.
All official course announcements will be posted on the password protected course home page:
http://econweb.umd.edu/~vincent/econ603/econ603.html
Problem sets, handouts, transparencies and online copies of readings (where available) will be posted on a password-protected site that can be linked to from this site.
There will be about 6 ungraded problem sets for the first half of the course. For your reference, all of the problem sets from last year are currently posted on the password-protected web page, but some of these are likely to be updated, and you should refer to the most recent version at the time of doing the problem sets.
The midterm exam will
be in class, Tuesday, October 21. Any students having any known
conflicts with the exam time should notify the professor immediately.
For your planning purposes, please
note that Professor Ausubel has set the final exam for this course to be
Monday, December 15 at 10:30am.
Texts
A. Mas-Colell, M. Whinston and J. Green (henceforth “MWG”), Microeconomic Theory, Oxford Univ. Press, 1995.
R. Gibbons, Game Theory for Applied Economists, Princeton Univ. Press, 1992 (paperback).
Course
Times
Section 0101: Tuesdays/Thursdays 2
Discussion Section 0101: Tuesdays 5:15
Teaching Assistant: Tzu-Ya0 Lin mailto:Tzu-Yao
Office
Hours
Professor Vincent’s Office Hours:
Thursdays,
Tzu-Yao Lin's
Office Hours: Wednesdays,
Topics
for
First
Half of Course (approximately one
week per topic)
1. Preferences, Utility Functions and Utility Maximization
http://econweb.umd.edu/~vincent/econ603/econ603ln1.pdf
http://econweb.umd.edu/~vincent/econ603/econ603ln2.pdf
MWG, pp. 3-9, 17-28, 40-57 and 926-935
Problem Set #1 Assigned: http://econweb.umd.edu/~vincent/econ603/econ603ps1.pdf
No Discussion Section on August 31 or September 4.
2.
Review of Kuhn-Tucker Theory
/ Envelope Theorem and Applications
http://econ-server/~vincent/econ603/econ603ln4.pdf
MWG, pp. 935-966 (especially pp. 935-943 and 954-966)
Handout on Kuhn-Tucker Conditions
This material may possibly be covered out of order
3. Expenditure Minimization, Hicksian Demands and Slutsky Equation
http://econ-server/~vincent/econ603/econ603ln5.pdf
MWG, pp. 57-75
Problem Set #2 Assigned: http://econ-server/~vincent/econ603/econ603ps2.pdf
4. Integrability, Substitutes Preferences, Submodularity and Walrasian T�tonnement
http://econ-server/~vincent/econ603/econ603ln7.pdf
MWG, pp. 75-95, 620-625
Problem Set #3 Assigned: http://econ-server/~vincent/econ603/econ603ps3.pdf
5. Welfare Evaluation, Revealed Preference and Aggregate Demand
http://econ-server/~vincent/econ603/econ603ln9.pdf
MWG, pp. 9-14, 28-36 and 105-123
Problem Set #4 Assigned: http://econ-server/~vincent/econ603/econ603ps4.pdf
6. Theory of the Firm, Profit Maximization, Cost Minimization and Duality
http://econ-server/~vincent/econ603/econ603ln1011.pdf
http://econ-server/~vincent/econ603/econ603ln12.pdf
MWG, pp. 127-160
Problem Set #5 Assigned: http://econ-server/~vincent/econ603/econ603ps5.pdf
7. Monopoly and Price Discrimination
http://econ-server/~vincent/econ603/econ603ln13.pdf
MWG, pp. 383-387 and 488-501
Problem Set #6 Assigned: http://econ-server/~vincent/econ603/econ603ps6.pdf