Economics 100C
Intermediate Economic Theory
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.
Office: North Hall 2052
Office Hours: Th 4-5:30 and by appointment.
Email: tedb@econ.ucsb.edu |
Announcements:
Our Classroom has been moved to HSSB 1173.
The only textbook material that we will use besides the readings
found on the Web are a few
chapters from Varian's Intermediate
Microeconomics and Bergstrom and Varian's Workouts.
For those of you who did not use these texts in Econ 100A and
100B, I will put links to pdf
copies of the relevant chapters on this website.
The first midterm will be on Thursday, May 3.
Here are answers for the Chapter 35 homework
problems.
Course Introduction
Click here for course introduction and ground
rules.
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 some
flexibility to make changes in the the schedule in response to the
march of events.
Unit 1--Economics of Information
Technology
April 3
Classroom experiment with Network Externalities the Picture
Phones
April 5
Classroom Experiment with Competing standards (Computer operating
Systems)
Begin discussion of Network Externalities Experiment--Online
Readings:
Click here to accesss discussion of Network Externalities and
homework
assignment..
Results
from Session 1 of Experiment 1 are posted here
Results from Session 2 of Experiment
1 are posted here
First Homework assignment is to be
turned in on Tuesday,
April 10.
**Homework questions appear at
end of readings and homework assignment.
April 10
Read Discussion
of Network Externalities
Please click the links
below to
read these two short papers
and be prepared to discuss them in class today.
A
history of competing word processors --Leibowitz and
Margolis
A
history of competing spreadsheets --Leibowitz and Margolis
April 12--Discussion of Information Technology
First Homework Assignment is due today (See April 5
assignment)
Read the Chapter on Information
Technology from Varian's
Intermediate Microeconomics textbook
(this is Chap 35 in Edition 7 and
Chap 34 in Edition 6.)
before you come to class.
Many of you used the Varian text for
Econ 100A and 100B.
If you don't have the Varian text, here
is a pdf copy of this chapter.
You can either read this online or print it out.
Also read
Economics
of Information Technology -- H. Varian
Homework assignment: Problems 1, 2 and 9
in Bergstrom
and Varian, Workouts , Chapter
34
Here is a pdf copy of the chapter with
the problems from Workouts.
Turn in Problems 1 and 9 from Chap 34
on April 17
April 17
More about Network Externalities
Read these papers and be prepared
to discuss them in class on April 10
Clio
and the Economics of QWERTY--Paul
David
The Fable of
the Keys--Leibowitz and Margolis
Economics
of Language: A Network Externalities Approach by Silvana Dalmazzone
taken from a book called
Economics of Language, edited by Albert Breton
The following paper will also be discussed in my lecture
Versioning
of Information goods by H.
Varian
Further reading
Costs
and Benefits of Library Site Licenses to Academic Journals,
C. Bergstrom and T. Bergstrom
April 19--Copyright and Intellectual Property
Read these papers
and be prepared to discuss them on April 13.
Why
Napster is Right --David Levine and Michele Boldrin
Circulating
Libraries and Video Rental Stores--
H. Varian and R. Roehl
April 24--Copyright and Intellectual Property, continued
Read chapters 1-5 of
Boldrin-Levine ms for April 18. Also read the two
short articles below
Against
Intellectual Monopoly , ms by Boldrin and Levine
IBM releases
patents News story New York
Times, April 10, 05
Printer Ink Competition
More on Printer Ink
A new development in the printer ink story
(4/26/07)
April
26
Complete reading
Boldrin-Levine ms. Read Farrell and Shapiro paper on Intellectual
Property
Intellectual
Property, Competition, and Information Technology M. Farrell
and C. Shapiro
The following paper will also be discussed in my lecture:
Buying,
Sharing and Renting
Information Goods--Varian, Journal of Industrial Economics,
Dec 2000
May
1--Discussion of Boldron and Levine and of Farrell and Shapiro
New ruling on patents by U.S. Supreme
Court, NY Times, May 1,
2007
May 3---Midterm 1
Unit 2--Economics of Asymmetric
Information
This unit will begin with an experiment
May 8 Lemons
Experiment Click here to
look for a description of
this experiment and to get the homework
assignment.
Before
we
meet do this experiment , please read the instructions for this
experiment at
the
beginning
of the link
found
above.
Assignment due on
May 15, Problem
set from Experiment 2.
Results
from Lemons Experiment
This information will be needed to complete your homework,
due May 15
May 10
Read the following paper and be
prepared to discuss it in class today.
The
Market for "Lemons"--George Akerlof
Class Lecture Notes
You can open these in your web
browser.
May 15
Read the following paper and be
prepared to discuss it in class today.
Job
Market Signaling--Michael Spence
Chapter 37
from Varian's Intermediate
Microeconomics.
Check
out the
following website.
Signalling in
the biological world
May 17
Read
the following.
Hidden
Information, Signalling, and
Screening from Microeconomics
for Managers by David Kreps
Also work Problems 1 and 2
from this chapter of Kreps book..
We will discuss thexd problemx in class, but I want you to
have worked on it in advance.
In preparation for this
reading, you may want to brush up on
expected utility theory. Read
pp 220-227
in Varian's
Intermediate
Microeconomics.
May
24
Assignment
For Tuesday May 9, Read
Incentives a chapter from from
Microeconomics
for Managers by David Kreps
Excel Spreadsheets for Kreps problems
Homework Assignment: Due May 31. This is a bigger problem set than your
previous ones.
I will grade it on a 10 point
basis rather than simply check or plus.
Kreps Chapter 18, Problem 18.4
Kreps Chapter 19, Problem 19.3
Do all seven problems 37.1-37.7 from Workouts
in Intermediate Economics, Chap 37
It may be helpful to read
pp 220-227
from Varian's
Intermediate
Microeconomics.
Unit 3--Congestion Pricing
May 28
Richard Arnott and Ken Small, The
Economics of Traffic Congestion, American Scientist 82:
pages
446-455, 1994.
Jam
Today, Road Pricing Tomorrow The Economist, December 6, 1997
London's
Congestion
Pricing
More
on London Traffic
Gary
Becker's blog tackles traffic congestion
Southern
California congestion pricing
May 31
Richard Arnott, Andrew de Palma,
and Robin
Lindsey, A
Structural Model of Peak-Period Congestion: A Traffic Bottleneck with
Elastic
Demand, American Economic Review 83: pages161-179 1993
Lecture Notes on Peak-Period Congestion
Announcements:
Our Second Midterm will be on the last regular day of
class, Thursday, June 7. We will not have a final
examination.
Class will not meet on Tuesday June 5. Here are Answers to the homework from Workouts,
Chapter 37.
And here is the answer to Problem 19.3 from
Kreps.
Online Readings
Network Externalities
Hal
Varian's The Information Economy page
Can
Economic Theory Explain Piracy Behavior?--Hakan Holm
Office Hours
Ted Bergstrom
North Hall 2052 Office hours:
Thursday 4-5:30. I also respond to email
questions. Click my name above to address an email to me.
Study Aids and Features
Economics
in Practice Interesting case studies related to your text, indexed
by chapter.
Economics in
Action
Articles from the Wall Street Journal dealing with topics
specifically
covered in class.
The Iowa Electronic Market.
An actual contingent-commodity market in which the contingencies are
outcomes
in political elections or events in the business world. If you
want
to speculate with some real money, the website explains how you can buy
and sell contingent commodities in this market.
The UBC Election Stock Market
A contingent-commodity market on political outcomes in the Great White
North. (home of the McKenzie brothers, Wayne Gretzky,
and Professor Garratt)
Paul Krugman's Home
Page Most economic journalists don't know much economics and
most economists can't write worth a damn. Paul Krugman is a very
competent professional economist who also writes about economics for
the
popular press. His home page has links to many of his popular
articles.
Take a look. I think you will find at least some of
them
both entertaining and instructive.
Need a Little Study Break?
Visit Calvin and Hobbes