THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG FACULTY OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS School of Economics and Finance ECON1001: Introduction to Economics

I (A & B) Fall 2011

Instructor: Phone number: Oce: Email:
Teaching Assistant: Phone number: Oce: Email:

Dr. Ka-fu WONG (Roughly before the reading week) 2857-8512 KKL 1002 kafuwong@econ.hku.hk
Mr Cheung Wai Ho (Jerry) Not available KKL 1026 jerrych@hku.hk

Professor Richard Yue-chim WONG (Roughly after the reading week) 2859-1122 KKL 1021 rycwong@hkucc.hku.hk
Miss Li Huiyun Not available KKL 1026 66lihuiyun@gmail.com Miss Ma Anping (Mandy) Not available KKL 1026 maanping800@hku.hk

Course webpage: http://moodle.econ.hku.hk/ (username and passcode required) COURSE INFORMATION: Prerequisites: The course is open to the B. Econ, B. Econ and Fin, and BSc. QFin students only. Course Overview: Economics is the study of human action. To understand how people can cooperate in social orders, and why they often cannot, we need to have a framework for understanding human action and its consequences. Economics provides one such framework. This is a course in microeconomics: the theory of consumers, rms, prices, and markets. Microeconomics has been applied to wide range of issues, from what determines the price of consumer goods, to such things as how people vote, how much education they acquire, and how many children they have. The purpose of this course is to actively engage students in the discovery of the economic content of everyday life. We will explore a range of topics and applications concerning how individuals make decisions about what to consume, produce, buy and sell, and how they interact with other consumers, producers, buyers and sellers in the marketplace. We will also address the role of government in the system, and policy areas such as regulation, antitrust, taxation, poverty and welfare. Course Objectives: 1. To develop literacy in microeconomics. 2. To introduce the use of microeconomic models to analyze the choice of individuals, the supply decisions of rms, and the market outcome of supply and demand interaction. 3. To introduce the strategic behavior and interactions among individuals. 4. To gain an appreciation of the problems facing economic policymakers and the impact of regulations on the economy. 5. To prepare students for their subsequent study of courses in Economics and Finance. Textbook: Frank, Robert and Ben Bernanke (2009): Principles of Microeconomics, 4th ed., McGraw-Hill. COURSE INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES (CILOs) On completion of this course, students should be able to: CILO1. Explain observed decisions of rms, decisions of consumers, and market outcome. CILO2. Analyze the eect of government policy on decisions of rms, decisions of consumers, and market outcome. CILO3. Understand and evaluate the economic analyses of others. CILO4. Discuss microeconomic issues in written forms. 1

ALIGNMENTS OF PROGRAM AND COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES: Program Intended Learning Objectives Acquisition and internalization of knowledge of economics and nance Application and integration of knowledge Developing global outlook Mastering communication skills Course Intended Learning Objectives (CILOs) CILO1, CILO2, CILO3, CILO4 CILO1, CILO2, CILO3, CILO4 CILO1, CILO2, CILO3, CILO4 CILO4

1. 2. 3. 4.

TEACHING AND LEARNING ACTIVITIES (TLAs) TLA1. TLA2. Lectures: Instructors will give lectures on major concepts and issues. Homework (writing assignments): Students will be asked to write questions and answers similar to the end-of-chapter questions. Best examples will be discussed in class and/or posted in the class website, for the benets to other students. Consultation: Both instructor and teaching assistants hold weekly consultation hours to address students questions. Students are also encouraged to discuss questions with the instructor and TAs via email or a forum in the class website.

TLA3.

ASSESSMENT A1 A2 A3 Assessment Final exam (Date and venue to be announced) Weekly assignments: Re-writing end-of-chapter questions with solutions Midterm writing assignment (due on the Friday after reading week) Weight 60% 30% 10%

Final exam: Usually lasts for two hours. Covers everything taught in the semester. The exam will consist of short answer questions only. Date, time and venue will be arranged centrally by the university, and announced later in the semester. The marking rubrics for the written nal exam are indicated in the table below: Performance Level (with Score Range) Outstanding 100-80 Procient 79-70 Competent 69-60 Adequate 59-50 Fail <50 Assessment Rubrics for the Written Final Exam

All or almost all of the questions are clearly and accurately responded. All or almost all of the responses are well organized, clear, uent, and with sucient elaboration. Most of the questions are clearly and accurately responded. Most of the responses are well organized, clear, uent, and with sucient elaboration. Some of the questions are clearly and accurately responded. Some of the responses are well organized, clear, uent, and with sucient elaboration. Few of the questions are clearly and accurately responded. Few of the responses are well organized, clear, uent, and with sucient elaboration. Very few of the questions are clearly and accurately responded. Very few of the responses are well organized, clear, uent, and with sucient elaboration.

Weekly writing assignments (due on Wednesdays): The weekly writing assignments are meant to sharpen students writing skills and to deepen students learning in the subject. After each chapter is covered, students, individually, are required to re-write two end-of-chapter questions. Students should try to re-cast the chosen questions into an interesting situation with new sets of numbers and answers. Re-casting means that the new questions should be suciently similar to, yet dierent from, the original questions. It is better the new questions are related to or represent the real-world situations. The marking rubrics for the weekly writing assignments are indicated in the table below: Performance Level (with Score Range) Outstanding 100-80 Assessment Rubrics for the Weekly Writing Assignments

Procient 79-70

Competent 69-60

Adequate 59-50

Fail <50

Situation identication (30%): All or almost all of the rewritten questions are highly related to important and interesting real-life situations. Analysis (50%): All or almost all of the analysis are correct, clear, logical and thorough. Eectiveness of writing (20%): The writing is well organized, clear and free of most writing errors. Situation identication (30%): Most of the rewritten questions are related to important and interesting real-life situations. Analysis (50%): Most of the analysis are correct, clear and logical. Eectiveness of writing (20%): The writing is well organized, clear and generally free of writing errors. Situation identication (30%): Most of the rewritten questions are somewhat related to important and interesting real-life situations. Analysis (50%): Most of the analysis are correct but are insucient in clarity and logic. Eectiveness of writing (20%): The writing is generally organized and clear, with few noticeable writing errors. Situation identication (30%): Most of the rewritten questions are somewhat related to less important and interesting real-life situations. Analysis (50%): Most of analysis contains some noticeable mistakes and lacks of clarity and logic. Eectiveness of writing (20%): The writing is adequately organized and clear, with some noticeable writing errors. Situation identication (30%): Most of the rewritten questions are unrelated to real-life situations. Analysis (50%): Most of analysis is incorrect and lacks of clarity and logic. Eectiveness of writing (20%): The writing is poorly organized and unclear, and with writing errors so serious that meaning is obscured.

Midterm writing assignment (due on the Friday after reading week): Each student should write a short paper applying the cost and benet analysis to explain why we has changed the way we do things. The writing gives us a chance to deepen our understanding of cost and benet analysis, and sharpen our writing skills and our analytical skills. Students are advised to talk to their parents or friends of older generation for idea of things that had changed within the past 30 years. In less than 1000 words, use cost and benet analysis to explain why there were such changes. Try to write concisely. Good papers are usually 500 to 600 words. A good writing should address a very interesting phenomenon, appeal to our parents, and be readable to students without previous economics training. The due date for this assignment is the Friday after the reading week. The marking rubrics for the midterm writing assignment are indicated in the table below: Performance Level (with Score Range) Outstanding 100-80 Assessment Rubrics for the Midterm Writing Assignment

Procient 79-70

Competent 69-60

Adequate 59-50

Fail <50

Situation identication (30%): The identied situation is highly important and interesting. Analysis (50%): All or almost all of the analysis are correct, clear, logical and thorough. Eectiveness of writing (20%): The writing is well organized, clear and free of most writing errors. Situation identication (30%): The identied situation is important and interesting. Analysis (50%): Most of the analysis are correct, clear and logical. Eectiveness of writing (20%): The writing is well organized, clear and generally free of writing errors. Situation identication (30%): The identied situation is somewhat important and interesting. Analysis (50%): Most of the analysis are correct but are insucient in clarity and logic. Eectiveness of writing (20%): The writing is generally organized and clear, with few noticeable writing errors. Situation identication (30%): The identied situation is weakly important and interesting. Analysis (50%): Most of analysis contains some noticeable mistakes and lacks of clarity and logic. Eectiveness of writing (20%): The writing is adequately organized and clear, with some noticeable writing errors. Situation identication (30%): The identied situation is not important and interesting. Analysis (50%): Most of analysis is incorrect and lacks of clarity and logic. Eectiveness of writing (20%): The writing is poorly organized and unclear, and with writing errors so serious that meaning is obscured.

Grade appeal: We always try to grade fairly. From time to time, however, students may feel that their assignments are unfairly graded. Most of the time, it is due to a misunderstanding of our grading standard (especially because we cannot give detailed comments to all students). Occasionally, it is due to our mistakes in grading. Whatever the cause, students have the right to ask for a re-grading. To reduce the abuse of the system, however, re-grading is done only if students agree to let us post their assignments, our comments and the revised grades in our class website. This policy will help other students understand our grading standard better. Rest assured that personal information will be concealed for privacy.

Relationship Among Intended Learning Outcome, Teaching And Learning Activities And Assessments CILO 1 2 3 4 Teaching and Learning Activities (TLA) 1 2 3

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ACADEMIC CONDUCT No plagiarism will be tolerated. The University Regulations on academic dishonesty will be strictly enforced! Please check the University Statement on plagiarism on the web: http://www.hku.hk/plagiarism/ Academic dishonesty is behavior in which a deliberately fraudulent misrepresentation is employed in an attempt to gain undeserved intellectual credit, either for oneself or for another. It includes, but is not necessarily limited to, the following types of cases: 1. Plagiarism - The representation of someone elses ideas as if they are ones own. Where the arguments, data, designs, etc., of someone else are being used in a paper, report, oral presentation, or similar academic project, this fact must be made explicitly clear by citing the appropriate references. The references must fully indicate the extent to which any parts of the project are not ones own work. Paraphrasing of someone elses ideas is still using someone elses ideas, and must be acknowledged. 2. Unauthorized Collaboration on Out-of-Class Projects - The representation of work as solely ones own when in fact it is the result of a joint eort. Where a candidate for a degree or other award uses the work of another person or persons without due acknowledgment: 1. The relevant Board of Examiners may impose a penalty in relation to the seriousness of the oence; 2. The relevant Board of Examiners may report the candidate to the Senate, where there is prima facie evidence of an intention to deceive and where sanctions beyond those in (1) might be invoked. TENTATIVE CLASS SCHEDULE Week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Topic Thinking Like an Economist (Chapter 1) Comparative Advantage (Chapter 2) Supply and Demand (Chapter 3) Elasticity (Chapter 4) Demand(Chapter 5) Perfectly Competitive Supply (Chapter 6) Eciency and Exchange (Chapter 7) The Invisible Hand in Action (Chapter 8) Monopoly, Oligopoly, and Monopolistic Competition (Chapter 9) Games and Strategic Behavior (Chapter 10) Externalities and Property Rights (Chapter 11) Public Goods and Tax Policy (Chapter 15)