Economics
255: 2M & 4M
Survey of Economic
Principles
Fall, 2007
Instructor
Name: R. Morris Coats
Office
Location: 102B White Hall
Phone
Number:
985-448-4237
Email: morris.coats@nicholls.edu
Webpage: http://www.nicholls.edu/mcoats
Blogpage: http://www.nicholls.edu/bastiatsbastions/
Office Hours: 11:45-12:30; 1:30-3:45 MWF; 5-6 p.m. M; 1:30-3:30
T and by appointment
Class Schedule: 2M & 4M (ECON 255); EM
(ECON 415)
Catalog Description:
ECON 255. Survey of Economic Principles.
3-3-0. Prerequisites: English 101 and eligibility to take Mathematics 101.
Degree credit will only be given for one of the following: Economics 211,
Economics 252 and Economics 255. A course for students whose curriculum requires only a survey
course in economics. Basic microeconomic and
macroeconomic principles and their applications to such subjects as competition
versus monopoly, the role of government, economic stabilization policies, and
international trade and finance. (45.0601)
Additional Description of the Course
The theory
of market exchanges and competition.
Fundamental economic problems, methods of economic
organization, and the price system. Topics include theory of consumer
choice and demand; comparative advantage and barriers to trade; the theory of
producer choice and supply; price and output determination in various
competitive environments; markets for labor, capital and natural resources;
income distribution; resource allocation; the role of government in regulating,
financing and producing in the economy, including analysis of the social choice
framework within which democratic decisions are made.
Required Text and Other
Materials:
Required
|
|
Roger LeRoy
Miller (2005). Understanding
Modern Economics, Pearson Addison-Wesley, Course Notes for Economics
255 Other readings may be assigned or made available from time to time. I may also assign videos to view if they can be made available over the internet or with Blackboard. |
|
|
Bruce Madariaga,
(2006). Economics
for Life: 101 Lessons You Can Use Every Day, Houghton-Mifflin, |
Suggested
1.
The Library of Economics and
Liberty. This is a unique reference tool in economics with online
classics in economics, such as Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations” and Bastiat’s “Economic Sophisms,” and they are all searchable.
Another great resource at this site is David Henderson’s Concise Encyclopedia of
Economics, which gives brief explanations about some often difficult
concepts.
2. Bastiat’s
Bastions, a blog run by Nicholls State University
Economists, Chad Turner, Norbert Michel, and Morris Coats. It examines current events using principles
of market economics.
Student Outcome Objectives:
General Education Student Learning
Outcomes
Economics 255, as a Core Curriculum course,
fulfills three hours of general education requirements in the area of the
social sciences and is thus designed to enable students to meet the following
broad outcome for all the social sciences:
Goal: Upon completion of the
undergraduate curriculum, students will have developed a deeper
understanding of the relation of self to world through investigation of the
influence of social, cultural, economic, and political institutions in shaping
human thought, value, and behavior. In particular, the course is designed to
get students to better understand the economic system and dispel many of the
myths about the free-enterprise system so that students can see that social
problems (behavior coordination problems) can be addressed not only by
collective action through government, but also by individual action through
private markets, and that each institutional approach (market or government)
has both advantages and disadvantages, and choices among solution institutions
must be made with an understanding of how these institutions work.
Economics 255 meets this goal by the following course-specific student learning
outcomes:
Student Learning Outcome Objectives:
Successful students should be able to:
1. Apply marginal analysis to everyday
decisions.
2. Utilize supply and demand analysis to correctly predict the direction
of changes in price and quantity (volume) as a result of changes in market
conditions.
3. Identify the characteristics of various market structures (competitive
environments).
4. Identify major factors that lead to differences in incomes among
individuals.
5. Compare and contrast how markets or exchange institutions (including
property and contract law) solve social problems with how political or
collective institutions (such as democracy) solve social problems.
6. Identify appropriate government policies that deal with unemployment,
inflation, and lack of economic growth, as well as the tradeoffs that must be
made when implementing such policies.
7. Predict the expansion or contraction of the money supply due to
changes in key elements of monetary policy and trace these effects through the
banking system.
8. Identify the factors that affect the direction of foreign trade.
Course Content:
|
Topics |
Miller |
Madariaga |
|
Scarcity and Basics |
1-2 |
Pt. 1 intro, 1-3, 15-16, 29, 46-47, 68 |
|
Supply and Demand
(Double-Oral Auction) |
3 |
|
|
Exam 1 Elasticity |
4 (partial) |
4, 6, 48-50, 66-67, 69-70, 79, 84, 90, 94 |
|
Elasticity and Public
Policy |
4 (partial) |
|
|
Production & Costs |
5 (partial) |
|
|
Competition & Monopoly |
6 |
17-20, 23-25, 44-45, 73-74 |
|
Exam 2 |
|
|
|
Market & Government
Failure |
8 |
55-56, 60-62, 65, 70, 77-78, 84-88, 92 |
|
Labor Economics |
9 |
21-22, 57-58, 97 |
|
Intro to Macro, Long-run Growth, Unemployment, Inflation,
Interest Rates, Business Cycles |
10, 15 |
41 & 99 |
|
Aggregate Demand and Supply
Fiscal Policy |
11 12 |
36, 98,100 |
|
Money and Banking Monetary Policy |
13 14 |
39, 40 |
|
Final Exam |
|
|
Note: This is a syllabus, a
plan, not a contract, and should not be interpreted in any way as a contract.
Course Requirements:
1. Attendance
2. Reading assignments--text
chapters, Course Notes,
and blog posts
3. Participation in auction market
experiment
4. Weekly Quizzes
5. Short Essays (every other week)
5. 2 Exams plus a Final
Methods of Evaluation:
There will be 2 exams prior
to the final that will each count 20% of the final grade. The final exam will
count 30% of your grade. Weekly quizzes
will, combined, count for 15% of your final grade. Every other week you are to write a short
essay. You score from these will account
for the remaining 15% of your grade. In
addition, you are able to earn bonus points by participating on the Bastiat’s
Bastions Blog, by contributing to the Praxis
notes and material for the Economics GLEs, and with
performance on the auction experiment.
Friday Quizzes (15% of final grade)
At the end of the last class of the
week I will give you a brief quiz over points raised in class and in the
readings that week. Some question items
may be on material covered in the same class.
Read ahead of the lecture, not behind it. I will drop your 3 lowest quiz
scores, so that those who MUST miss a few classes (members of school teams,
away on university business) will not be penalized. If you know you must miss
on quiz day, let me know ahead of time so that you can take the quiz early.)
Short Essays (15% of final grade):
Every
other Wednesday, at the beginning of class, an essay will be due—these may be
emailed (preferred) prior to class.
The “economic way of thinking” often produces
surprising results, counter to what we often think. We call these results “counterintuitive,” as
they are the opposite of what our simple intuition often tells us. David Levitt (an
economist) and Stephen Dubner wrote a very popular
book based on surprising results using the economic way of thinking; the book
was called Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist
Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. Here is
what Wikipedia
had to say about the book:
“Freakonomics peaked at number 2 among nonfiction
on the New York Times bestseller list, and
was named the 2006 Book Sense Book of the Year in the Adult Nonfiction
category.”
“The
book is a collection of economic articles written by Levitt,
translated into prose meant for a wide audience. Levitt
had already gained a reputation in academia for
applying economic theory to diverse topics usually not covered by "traditional"
economists (note that Levitt is actually not at all a
"rogue" economist in that he entirely accepts the standard microeconomic
paradigm of rational utility-maximization; he is
merely applying it to unconventional subjects).”
Similarly,
Madariaga’s book (an easier read than Freakonomics and more, but
shorter essays) will provide many surprising results of the economic way
of thinking. Your essays will build off
of essays in Madariaga’s book. You
will be given a concept that we are working on.
Formatting
and limitations for the essay: Double
space, using 12pt. Times New Roman font, 1 inch margins all the way
around. Page limits: ˝ page minimum, 2
page maximum. Title and name at the top
of the first page. Any references you
need to cite may spill over to a third page.
You might
also want to notice the Plagiarism and Turnitin use
policies below. If you use anyone else’s
idea, give them credit, otherwise, you have a plagiarism offense to contend
with—and I am one of the best “Googler’s” around (in
fact, I am so good at finding things with Google, when my wife lost her keys
one day, I found them with Google!).
Original ideas are given more credit.
You might want to use Google to help check on other people’s possible
use of the idea. Make sure you are
being original, instead of just ignorant of the work of others.
Make use
of spell check and grammar check and make sure you use words correctly. More importantly, make sure that you
correctly apply the concept. Use of
references to make sure you understand the concept is ok. Such references might be the textbook,
textbooks from my office area, the books at The Library of Economics and Liberty, especially
David Henderson’s Concise
Encyclopedia of Economics. You might
want to check out early posts on Bastiat’s
Bastions, as well as anything from Freakonomics,
Café Hayek (a blog by Russell Roberts and NSU graduate, Don Boudreaux,
who is the economics department head at George Mason), or My Op-ed Essays.
Any essay that is turned in after
the beginning of class on the Wednesday it is due will not be accepted. You may email the essay or use Blackboard’s
Drop Box, but must have it in by the beginning time of class on the Wednesday
it is due.
The best essay of the term will earn
its author 2 extra “power points,” which are 2 points toward your Course Score
or 2 points out of 100 for your final grade—20% of a letter grade. You will have to “resubmit” essays to compete
for best essay. Make sure you correct
any problems noted the first time.
Exams (70% of final grade)
There will be 3 exams and a comprehensive
final. In addition to the assigned chapters of the texts, you may be required
to do other reading from time to time (mostly from the COURSE NOTES, and op-ed essays available on
the Internet at URL: http://www.nicholls.edu/mcoats).
Questions will come from class and the books for the course and any other readings that are assigned. Exams will include a written (at least full sentences!) bonus question.
The final exam counts for 30% of your grade, while the 2 prior exams will
count 20% each.
Earning Bonus Points
Economics and Social Studies Education
Sometimes Education Majors ask why they have to take 6 hours of economics. One of the prime reasons is because you are very likely to have to teach and will be tested on it on the Praxis exam. Another reason is that economics is one of the basic social sciences and understanding of economics aids in understanding history, sociology, political science, and geography. An additional aim of my sections of Economics 255 is to prepare Social Science Education majors to be successful on the economics portion of the Praxis Exam and to be prepared to teach the economics portion of social studies. Education Majors should note that economics is now taught at every grade, K-8, as well as in high school as the Free Enterprise course. You should also note that it is a significant part of Louisiana History and the various geography courses students take. To this end, I have prepared a Study Guide for the economics covered on the Social Sciences Praxis Exam, based on what Praxis claims to cover. This study guide will also be very useful in this class for obvious reasons. I have also begun to write up some Notes to support that study guide (I am up to 61 single-spaced pages of notes). You will have access to both the Study Guide and the Notes.
In
If you submit (via Blackboard) an MS Word file and printed copy of your
note, and I decide to include it in this teacher resource, you will receive one
bonus point toward your final grade. I
will not give two students credit for notes on the same topic (so we will work
out a way to avoid students working on the same notes). You can contribute up
to five notes, earning half a letter grade in bonus points. Your note must contain explanations of the
topic in your own words sufficient to provide a teacher with the basic concepts
and knowledge (content) to be able to base a lesson upon or it must provide a
unique way of teaching that topic (pedagogical); it must be well written; it
would help if it also contained helpful links for understanding the material
(content) or for teaching the material (pedagogy), and, of course, it must not
be plagiarized. You may submit no more
than one note per week. I already have
most of the first half of the Free Enterprise GLEs
complete. You will be allowed to borrow
from my course notes (with appropriate paraphrasing and credit) on the same
material to produce GLE notes for lower grades, but you still have to come up
with something on your own. You might
want to take a look at Wikipedia and at
Your
note must be edited (corrected) for final approval to receive your extra
points. The last date for submitting
these notes is 2 weeks before the final exam.
Websites for these materials:
Unfinished
Draft: Content and Pedagogy Materials for Louisiana Economics Grade-Level
Expectations
Note: This bonus-point project is a
Service-Learning project, as it serves to both help you learn and to help serve
others outside of the class, especially social studies education majors, social
studies teachers, and social studies students in grades k-12.
Blog Comments and Posts
This term, some short articles will
be posted to the blog, Bastiat’s
Bastions. I, along with some
colleagues here at Nicholls in my department and perhaps even other professors
from other universities will write short articles on contemporary issues based
on economic analysis, updating the blog on a regular
basis with new posts. We invite student
comments. If the comment is well thought
out and substantial (that is, they must be more than “that was great” or “that
was stupid” and must contain well thought out economic analysis) and well
written, you will earn one bonus point toward your final grade, up to a total
possible 5 points, or one-half letter grade. The comments must be about blog articles from this semester--comments on articles
posted in previous semesters will not receive points. If you can come up with a good blog post (not a comment, but a blog
“article”) and it is written well enough to post, you can earn 2 points. You may only submit one blog
post for points. I will not post any
more than one student blog post (article) in a
week. So if you want one of these
points, do not wait until the end of the term, as the competition will be
fierce then. No blog
comments or posts will be accepted in the last week of class meetings (the week
before finals).
Class Auction Market Experiment Extra Points
In class you will take part in a
class auction market experiment or demonstration. You will be an active participant. For you to learn from this, you will have to
be in class that day. You may earn up to
5 points with this auction—that is one-half of a letter grade. You can get 3 points just for being there and
following all instructions. You earn the
other 2 points based on how well you do—the profits you earn. If you miss your class’s auction, I will let
you participate in another class’s auction, but you will have to come to that
class. I will be holding these auctions
in both of my 255 classes and they will not be on the same day.
Final Grade Computation
The final course score will
be computed by the following formula:
Course Score = +
0.20 (Exam 1)
+ 0.20 (Exam 2)
+
0.15 (Average of best 8 Weekly Quizzes)
+
0.15 (Average of best 5 Short Essays)
+
0.30 (Final Exam)
+ all extra points from blog comments, GLE
notes, auction
If your score on your
comprehensive final is higher than your Course Score, your Final
Grade score will be your Final Exam score. The Final Exam can be substituted for missed
midterms, but not missed quizzes.
The grading scale is the
usual 90/80/70/60 scale. Any instance of cheating will be reported and
full action will be pursued (see
the handout on cheating and plagiarism).
Class Photos:
I am terrible at remembering names of students (or names of my dear
relatives--I will tell you about it in class). I have a compensating
mechanism for dealing with that forgetfulness--a digital camera, and I will be
taking your photos the first few days of class. I will post your photo
along with your first name (or the name you go by) at my BlackBoard
site. You will be able to learn the names of your classmates.
Class rules:
There
are two simple rules for this class:
(1) Don’t be rude, and
(2) Don’t distract from the class activity.
Here are some things that would be
considered distracting or rude and are not allowed:
1. Eating in the classroom
before, during or after class. Drinking water, sodas, coffee or tea is
permitted.
2. Packing your things away
before class is over and you have been dismissed.
3. Use of any tobacco product.
4. Reading newspapers, magazines,
textbooks, workbooks, or novels during class.
5. Having a "Walkman"
or other personal entertainment device out.
6. Talking, whispering, and
note passing during class. Leaving early (unless you have permission or
suddenly become ill).
7. Working on class assignments
for other classes or studying for other classes during our class period.
8. Ringing cell phones or
pagers.
9. Sleeping in class (this
behavior is particularly distracting and quite rude).
10. Logging on to websites (such
as Facebook, checking your email, etc.) other than
ones we may be working on in class (such as the current PowerPoint slides).
11. Taking notes in your text in
class by highlighting. While flipping through pages to find a passage in the
text that supports what is being said in lecture is distracting and rude, the
primary reason for this rule is to encourage you to think about what is being
said during class so that you will engage in active learning, and you will be
in a position to engage in meaningful discussion. If you are preoccupied with
searching a textbook, it will be virtually impossible for you to benefit from
the lecture/discussion going on at the same time. Hint: Read the book before
class and highlight material that you recall from the lecture after class. Have
your economics text out only when I am directing your attention to the text or
when you are asking questions about your reading that you did not understand.
Do bring your book to class, however. Just do not use your text to take notes
during class.
12. Any other behavior that
would reasonably be considered distracting or rude.
A few guidelines for out-of-class
interaction with your professor:
13. Do not come to my office a
few minutes before class.
14. Do not come to me before
class with some paper that I am supposed to sign, including drop slips. I do
not sign papers before class.
15. Do not ask me "Is this
going to be on the test?"
On its face, this seems like a reasonable question. This question tells your
professor that the only things you think are worth knowing from his class are
those items on the exams. Exams do not cover all of the course, but only sample
your knowledge. If you set your sights on learning the subject instead of
getting good grades, the grades will take care of themselves.
16. Do not ask "Did I miss
anything important yesterday?" or "Am I going to miss anything
important tomorrow?"
These questions tell your professor that you expect the answer to be
"no." If a professor were not going to cover anything important, he
would stay in his office that class period and dismiss class.
Make-up Procedure:
Any missed exam will count as a
zero, but will be replaced by your final exam grade. You can take exams a day
early if you give me at least three days notice. You are NOT allowed to
make up the auction experiment, as these involve class participation. I drop several of the quizzes and you can
turn in essays by email or with the Blackboard dropbox.
Therefore, there is no need for make-ups of any type.
Academic Honesty Policy:
CHEATING
A. On Exams:
1.
During an exam
a. wearing a hat or cap
b. looking on another exam or letting someone see your answers.
c. any communication between (among) students.
d. looking at notes, books, cheat sheets, etc., during the exam unless the instructor informs you that the exam is open book or open notes in advance, or allows a formula or "cheat" sheet.
e. taking a copy of the exam out of the room without specific authorization to do so, that is, if the instructor doesn't specifically say one way or another if you may take a copy of the exam. Taking a copy of the exam would constitute cheating.
f. not reporting any cheating you observe.
g. having anything written on clothing, skin, etc., that would give the student an advantage.
2.
Not during an exam.
a. asking a fellow student who has previously taken an exam anything about the exam other than is it difficult or long.
b. stealing, receiving, or copying any unauthorized copy of the exam.
c. not reporting any cheating you observe which includes not reporting someone who tells you of another's cheating but does not report.
d. any planning with another to steal an exam even if the plans are not carried out.
B. On other
assignments:
1. Copying any answer to assigned questions or problems constitutes cheating unless the project is a group project, and then only from members of your group.
2. Asking or answering any questions concerning the assignment other than the instructor or the instructor's assistant with the exception of the question: When is it due?
3. Allowing someone access to your assignment answers or gaining access to another's assignment answers. It is acceptable to photocopy someone's assignment questions as long as there are no answers.
4. Getting someone else to do any computation or computer work for you or doing it for another, including having someone else do the statistics for you for a paper.
C. Any bribe or threat or hint of an attempt at bribe or threat will be
considered cheating,
including something like the following:
1. I
will do anything for an A (or B or C etc.) or
2. What can I do to get a better grade? It is acceptable to ask the instructor what you need to work on to improve your performance. Giving unfair aid is as serious as receiving it. Knowing about others cheating without reporting it to the instructor or the instructor's department chairman is also cheating. This does not mean that you cannot seek help from another to understand a concept or even how to work a problem similar to the one you cannot see how to work. Also, though collaboration on assignments is cheating, I wish to encourage you to study together, discuss paper topics, etc.
Penalty for infractions of
cheating rules is an F in the course and a recommendation for dismissal from
the university.
PLAGIARISM
A. Copying any assignment or any part of an assignment by someone else without giving that person credit. This is particularly relevant to any out-of-class assignment in this class. Also, do not talk to others that would give them special clues to solve some puzzle in an assignment.
B. Letting or asking anyone to copy a paper.
C. Having someone else write papers for you. It is allowable for someone else to type your paper for you, but typists, even when paid, should be acknowledged.
D. Any comments from another person on your paper's topic should be properly acknowledged.
E. Knowledge of someone handing in work not their own.
F. Copying word for word or even almost word for word constitutes plagiarism without identifying the words as a quotation.
G. Paraphrasing without citation.
H. Copy another's ideas without citation
Penalty for infractions of the plagiarism rules is an F in the course and a recommendation for dismissal from the university.
Attendance Policy:
Attendance
is required per university policy. While
I may not always take roll, there will be many graded activities throughout the
term. Do not waste a “dropped quiz” on
one you didn’t take because you missed that class.
DROP DATE: The last
day to drop a course with a “W” is
October 26, 2007.
Americans With Disabilities Act:
If
you have a documented disability that requires assistance, you will need to
register with the Office of Disability Services for coordination of your
academic accommodations. The Office of
Disability Services is located in Peltier Hall, Room
100-A. The phone number is (985) 448-4430 (TDD 449-7002).
Academic Grievances:
The
proper procedure for filing grade appeals or grievances related to academic
matters is listed in Section 5 of the Code of Student Conduct and at the
following link: http://www.nicholls.edu/documents/student_life/code_of_conduct.pdf.
Continued Learning following an Extreme Emergency:
In
order to make continued learning possible following an extreme emergency, students are responsible for:
- reading regular
emergency notifications on the NSU website;
- knowing how to use and
access Blackboard (or university designated electronic delivery system);
- being familiar with
emergency guidelines;
- evacuating textbooks and other course materials;
- knowing their
Blackboard (or designated system) student login and password;
- contacting faculty
regarding their intentions for completing the course.
Faculty are responsible for:
- their development in
the use of the Blackboard (or designated) software;
- having a plan for
continuing their courses using only Blackboard and email;
- continuing their course
in whatever way suits the completion of the course best, and being
creative in the continuation of these courses;
- making adjustments or
compensations to a student’s progress in special programs with labs,
clinical sequences or the like only in the immediate semester following
the emergency.
Turnitin Policy:
By
taking this course, students agree that all assignments are subject to
submission to Turnitin.com, an online plagiarism prevention and detection
service. All work submitted to
Turnitin.com will be added to its database of papers. Turnitin’s privacy policy and a description of the service available at http://www.turnitin.com. Specifically, this service compares your
paper with Internet webpages, articles in databases,
and all papers previously submitted from this university or any other. Turnitin then
either confirms the originality of your work or gives the source of
plagiarism. In cases of detected
plagiarism, the paper and supporting evidence will be handled in compliance
with the Student Code of Conduct (http://www.nicholls.edu/documents/student_life/code_of_conduct.pdf).
Warning:
The theory and methods
presented in this course will help you to understand many social phenomena, not
just business activity. This is worthy of diligent study and requires it
from even the more intelligent student. You will probably need to read
the assigned material more than once before coming to class on that
material. Procrastination leads to cramming, which can only result in
confusion and failure.