Principles of Economics I (JEB101) and Principles of Microeconomics (JPM322)

Winter Semester 2013-14, Charles University, Faculty of Social Sciences

This course introduces economic thinking and basic principles of microeconomics for economics students as well as for non-economists. The lectures will be the same for both Principles of Economics I (PoE) and Principles of Microeconomics (PoM). External guest lecturers will be invited to contribute to the lectures and thus enrich the course. The course begins with the first lecture on 2^nd October at 8 am in room no. 314. The location of all lecture and seminar rooms is the Institute of Economic Studies at Opletalova 26, Praha.

This is an introductory microeconomics course with lectures and seminars for students of:

Bachelor in Economics and Finance (as a mandatory course).
Bakalářské studium Ekonomie (mandatory, as an alternative to Ekonomie I).
International Economic and Political Studies (mandatory as PoM).
Any degree at Charles University with interest in economics (optional).

Lectures and seminars

	Day	Time	Room	Name	Contact
Lecture	Wednesday	8:00-9:20	314	Petr Janský	web, email
Seminar Standard	Friday	12:30-13:50	105	Václav Korbel	web, email
Seminar Interest	Friday	15:30-16:50	206	Jan Šolc	web, email
Seminar PoM	Wednesday	14:00-15:20	105	Jan Soudek	web, email

Seminar PoM is aimed at students of Principles of microeconomics (mostly IEPS students), who have a priority access. Other students can theoretically attend this seminar as well, but they need to fit in the small room.

Seminar Standard is designed to help students learn economics and get the best grade in this course.

Seminar Interest is for curious and talented students who are keen to learn about economic topics beyond the minimum requirements of this course.

Furthermore, Jan Šolc is responsible for Aplia and Jan Soudek for written exams and the Principles of Microeconomics seminar and projects - so please do not hesitate to contact them in case you have questions related to these issues.

Readings

The course follows the material that is present in almost identical form in one of the following two textbooks (and also their earlier or later editions):

§ Mankiw, N.G., Taylor, M.P.: Economics (2^nd or earlier edition). The chapter numbers in the weekly schedule below relate to this textbook.

§ Mankiw, N.G..: Principles of Economics (6^th edition or earlier edition).

Students are encouraged to read one of these textbooks. There are a number of copies of the Economics textbook available in the IES library (and some in the CERGE-EI library). Students can also buy their own textbooks. Also please note that a number of other introductory economics texts provide almost equivalent service to the student as the above mentioned textbooks.

The student hand-outs and lecture presentations will be regularly updated at the SIS course pages, to which all the students should sign up. The supporting web pages of this course include the webpage of the textbook, which has useful student hand-outs and other student resources.

Requirements and assessment

Regular lectures and seminars are organised for the benefit of the students, who are encouraged to provide constructive feedback during the semester so that teaching can be altered accordingly for their greater benefit. Attendance at lectures is voluntary, but highly recommended. Furthermore, experience shows that there is a strong positive correlation between attendance in class and good results in exams.

This course offers two main alternatives for final examination. Students can decide either to fulfil assignments mainly in an online Aplia system during the semester or to sit in for a written exam at the end of the semester. It is also possible to sit in for the written exam after trying Aplia, which would count as the first attempt at a final examination. Aplia assignments include problem sets and readings to be submitted on a weekly basis - more on Aplia and how to purchase it is at the end of this syllabus. For both Aplia and the exam, the grading follows this simple rule: the total number of points received is divided by the maximum number of points that could have been received.

The details of requirements and assessments differ between PoE and PoM as described below. However, the grading is same in both cases. Total values higher than 90% correspond to grade 1 (výborně in Czech), between 80% and 90% to grade 2 (chvalitebně), between 70% and 80% to grade 3 (dobře).

For students of PoE, the written exam or Aplia results (plus any extra activity points from seminars) account for 100% of the final grade. Additionally, students are required to be present at least at one of the seminars at least some of the weeks. Students are required to be active at seminars (and recognised so by tutors) at least in two weeks in order to pass this course. Tutors will record the activities by the students and they will specify the details during seminars. Each additional week of activity in one of the seminars above the two weeks’ threshold will add 0.5 points towards the result from the written exam or Aplia. Students can thus improve their grade by being active in the seminars by up to 5 points.

For students of PoM, the final grade has the following components (students are required to achieve at least a half of the maximum from each of them): Aplia or the written text (60% of the final grade), project presentation (15%), project essay (15%), participation on seminars (10%; students get up to 2 point every time you deliver an approximately one-page project appraisal or come to the seminar and actively participate in the discussions).

Weekly schedule

Week (Winter)	Day (2013)	Themes	Mankiw chapters
1	2^nd October	Ten Principles of Economics; Thinking Like an Economist; course introduction	1 + 2
2	9^th October	Interdependence and the Gains from Trade (a guest lecture by Vilém Semerák)	3
3	16^th October	The Market Forces of Supply and Demand; Elasticity and Its Application; Supply, Demand and Government Policies	4 + 5 + 6
4