Welcome to the Economics 100C Website. Here you will find the course
syllabus,
a schedule of lessons, homework and examinations, and some bits of
advice.
Students in this class will be expected to check this site
regularly.
We will routinely use this site for posting announcements and homework
assignments.
June 4. I have added answers to some more of the problems from
the Kreps book.
You will find them
here and here.
Final Exam...You don't need to
bring a blue book to the exam. You may bring a calculator.
If you are thinking about things to do after graduation, you might be
interested in this
message which I recently received.
Thinking of graduate school in economics? Here is a useful
site. And do feel free to come and chat with me about
this or any other career option that you are considering.
Course Introduction
This is a sequel to Economics 100A and 100B. In this course, we
build on things you
learned in 100A and 100B. The
only textbook material that we will use are chapters from
Varian's Intermediate
Microeconomics and Bergstrom and Varian's Workouts. The Web
readings include articles from economics journals and material
from a variety of other sources.
You will be required to bring an i>clicker to class.
These are the same clickers that you used for 100A and100B. If
you don't already have one, they are available for purchase at the
campus bookstore for $37.50. If you haven't already done
so, you will need to register your i>clicker at the following
website. www.i>clicker.com/registration.
Course grades will be assigned on the following basis.
Participation and in-class quizzes 20%.
First Midterm 20%
Second Midterm 20%
Final Exam 40%.
Is this the course for you?
If you did not do well in Economics 100A and 100B, this is not the
course for you! This course builds on the material that was
taught in 100A and 100B and is intended to be more challenging than
either of these courses. There are regular assigned readings and
frequent homework and in-class quizzes. You will be
expected to come to class and to have done the assigned reading before
you come to class. I will take attendance and will call on
people regularly.
If you are willing and able to put in the effort to read the assigned
material, to work the assigned homework problems, and to show up in
class having done your assignments, I hope that you will find the
course stimulating and enjoyable.
Approximate Class Schedule
Think of this as a forecast--like the weather report. It is
fairly accurate for the short term, but we will reserve
flexibility to make changes in the the schedule in response to the
march of events.
Unit 1--Auctions
March 30 Introduction and classroom auction experiments
April 1--Private Values and Common Value Auctions Readings and Homework. Please read these materials
before
coming to class on Thursday and be prepared to discuss your readings in
class. Varian:
Intermediate Microeconomics Ch. 17, Auctions Steve Matthews: A Technical Primer on
Auction Theory: Sections 1 and 2 (Click here for link)
Work the following problems from Workouts in Intermediate Microeconomics Chapter 17: Auctions
Problems 1-3
Please read this
material before
coming to class and be prepared to discuss your readings in
class.
During the first 5 minutes of class, I will ask you to supply a written
answer to a question based on a reading of this
article. Michael Heller: The
Tragedy of the Anticommons
Additional suggested reading: Excerpts from book The Gridlock Economy, by
Michael Heller
May 4 (Second Midterm)
Unit 4--Information Economics
May 6 Please read the
following paper before
coming to class and be prepared to discuss your readings in
class. The
Market for "Lemons"--George Akerlof Lemons
Experiment. This is a description of our lemons experiment
and the related theory. May 11 Please read the following materials
before
coming to class and be prepared to discuss your readings in
class. Chapter
37
from Varian's Intermediate
Microeconomics. Class Lecture
Notes You can open these in your web
browser.
Review material. In this lecture and in later lectures, we
will be using some of the material on expected utility that you covered
in Econ 100A-B, see especially pp 220-227 of Varian's chapter
12 on Uncertainty, May 13 Please read the following
materials
before
coming to class and be prepared to discuss your readings in
class. During the first 5
minutes
of class, I will ask you to supply a written answer to a question based
on one of this article. Job
Market Signaling--Michael Spence
May 25 Read
the chapter Incentives from Microeconomics
for Managers by David Kreps Work problem 18.2 from the Hidden
Information, Signalling and Screening chapter of the Kreps book and Problem 19.2 from this chapter
and hand them in at the beginning of this class meeting.
