Economics 11: Microeconomic Theory

Andraz Kavalar
Spring 2014


1. Class Information
Website: https://moodle2.sscnet.ucla.edu/course/view/14S-ECON11-1 [Check this site regularly.
Announcements, problem sets, additional readings, and other useful items will be posted here.]
Lectures: Tuesday and Thursday, 3:30pm-4:45pm in Haines 39
Office Hour: Thursday, 5pm-7pm in 2265 Bunche Hall (Alper room)

2. Contact Information
Instructor: Andraz Kavalar
Office: 7380 Bunche Hall
Email: akavalar@ucla.edu
Remarks: As always, your first point of contact should be your TA (I will not respond to emails
that should be sent to your TA first). For enrollment questions, please talk to the economics
counsellor J ulie Plotkin (ug-counselor@econ.ucla.edu). Otherwise, when contacting me by email
please indicate Econ 11 in the subject line.

3. Course Description and Requirements
Econ 11 is the first part of a two-course sequence in microeconomic theory, the second part
being Econ 101. Both courses are technically demanding and rigorous.

The intent of this course is to provide a rigorous presentation of microeconomics, the branch of
economics dealing with behavior of individual decision makers (such as consumers and firms).
The goal of the course is for students to learn to think rigorously on their own about how
economic agents make choices and the implications of these choices. Lectures focus on
presentation of analytical tools, which form the basis for such thinking. Problem sets provide
students with practice applying these tools. Students will be evaluated on their understanding of
these tools and their ability to apply them to new problems. It is important to remember that this
is a course on economic methodology, not on policy. A lot of what you learn here will be applied
later in other economics and business courses you will take. For economics majors, this course is
one of the most important one you will take.

A solid background in calculus is essential for success in Econ 11. I have posted a Math Guide,
which reviews the most important results from calculus that we will be using in this course. Also,
Econ 11 has been designated as an impacted course. This means that you can only decide to drop
the course during the first two weeks.

4. Textbook and Course Material
The textbook for this course is Microeconomic Theory: Basic Principles and Extensions, by
Walter Nicholson and Christopher Snyder (11
th
edition). I am happy for people to use earlier
editions or the international edition, which may be substantially cheaper, but cannot guarantee
that the material will be identical.
There are other very good microeconomics textbooks. Perloff's Microeconomics: Theory and
Applications, with Calculus is at the same level as the class. Varian's Intermediate
Microeconomics and Nicholson's Intermediate Microeconomics are both slightly easier.

5. Course Requirements
Students are expected to attend lectures as well as weekly discussion sessions with a TA. We
will follow the text as much as we can. However, not all material in the chapters of the text we
cover will be presented in lectures. Problem sets will be assigned approximately once per week
and will be graded, primarily for completeness. Late homework will not be accepted for any
reason, although each student's lowest homework grade will be dropped. Problem sets are
designed to enable students to become proficient using the concepts and analytical methods
presented in the lectures and readings. Students may collaborate on problem sets, although each
must submit her/his own answers in her/his own words. Work on the problem sets! While these
account for only 20% of the final grade, they provide excellent practice for the exams.

6. Discussion Sections
Each student is assigned to a weekly discussion section with a TA. All teaching assistants for this
course are PhD students in economics:

Sections A and D: Chen Liu (cliu40@ucla.edu)
Sections B and F: Lei Zhang (econlei@ucla.edu)
Sections C and H: Yingju Ma (mayingju@ucla.edu)
Sections E and L: Megan Accordino (maccordino@ucla.edu)
Sections G and I: Matt Miller (mattmmiller@ucla.edu)
Sections J and K: J en Wen Chang (hips@ucla.edu)

Discussion sections will usually focus on the problem set assigned the previous week. TAs will
often review material covered in the lectures that week and will sometimes present new material.
If you have a question, you can (and should) bring it up in the session.

7. Exams
There will be one midterm exam held during regular class and one cumulative final exam, both
of which are closed book. Midterm exam will be given in class on May 6th. This is the only time
this exam will be offered; i.e. there are no makeup midterms. A cumulative final exam will be
given on Friday, J une 13, 11:30am-2:30pm. This schedule cannot be changed, and alternative
exam times will not be offered, so please resolve any conflicts now! Practice exams will be
provided and will give a good indication of the style and level of questions likely to be on the
exams you will be given. Exams require students to solve new problems using the analytical
tools developed in class.

8. Grading
The exam scores will be graded to comparable 100-point scales. Homework will count 20% of
the final grade. The final exam will count 50% and the midterm will count 30%.

Per ladder faculty vote in Spring 2011, the department has adopted the following recommended
grade distribution for core classes (Econ 1, 2, 11, 41, 101,102, 103):
A+/A/A- 25%
B+/B/B- 35%
C+/C/C 25%
Ds/Fs 15%

9. Questions about Grading
We try very hard to grade fairly and consistently. Mistakes in grading are unusual but sometimes
do occur. When they do, we want to correct them. Questions about grading should be directed
first to your TA. Most questions are resolved easily in this way. If the first attempt to resolve the
question with your TA fails, email me and explain the grading disagreement and the outcome of
the discussion with the TA. Students should not be discouraged from pursuing questions about
their grades. This policy is intended only to protect the impartiality of the grading process.

10. Approximate Lecture Plan
The schedule of topics covered in lectures will approximate the schedule below.

Tuesday Thursday
Week1
April1 April3
(cancelled) Intro&MathematicsforMicroeconomics[1&2];HW1
Week2
April8
April10
PreferencesandUtility[3] PreferencesandUtility[3];HW2;HW1due
Week3
April15 April17
UtilityMaximizationandChoice[4] UtilityMaximizationandChoice[4];HW3;HW2due
Week4
April22 April24
IncomeandSubstitutionEffects[5] IncomeandSubstitutionEffects[5];HW4;HW3due
Week5
April29 May1
DemandRelationshipsamongGoods[6] EndowmentsofGoods[notes];HW5;HW4due
Week6
May6 May8
Midterm ProductionFunctions[9];HW5due
Week7
May13 May15
CostFunctions[10] ProfitMaximization[11];HW6
Week8
May20 May22
PartialEquilibriumCompetitiveModel[12] PartialEquilibriumCompetitiveModel[12];HW7;HW6due
Week9
May27 May29
GeneralEquilibriumandWelfare[13] GeneralEquilibriumandWelfare[13];HW8;HW7due
Week10
June3 June5
GeneralEquilibriumandWelfare[13] (???);HW9;HW8due

Finals
week
Friday,June13
Finalexam;HW9due


11. Success in Econ 11
While students differ in studying habits, past experience suggests several keys to success:
1. Attend lectures and TA sessions. These go hand-in-hand, and both are central for your
success in this class. Whereas the lectures present the new concepts, it is in the TA
sessions that you really get to apply them.
2. Focus on problem solving and applying the relevant concepts. This is what exams and
problem sets will be based on. Moreover, most of the concepts and theory will become
much clearer once you see how they apply to specific problems.
3. Keep up with the material. Your brain retains more information if it has time to process
material between classes. Cramming is a poor substitute for spread-out learning.
4. The course is not based on memorization: I will test you on how well you can apply a
fairly limited number of concepts.