Logistics

This course offers a terrific two-for-one opportunity: Professor Wolfers will provide the lectures, but Dr Ben Zamzow will handle all student email, questions, and course logistics. Dr Zamzow will also be available to provide advice and feedback. Whatever your question, you are better off approaching Dr Zamzow first.

Office: Lorch Hall M-108 (warning, it can be a bit tricky to find)

Office hours: Fridays 10-11:30.

Email: econ101-300@umich.edu

Canvas site: https://umich.instructure.com/courses/317394

GSI Office Hours (Open to all in Econ 101-300)

Monday, 5:30 - 7pm in Lorch 173 with Robert

Tuesday, 5:30-7pm in Lorch 173 with Levi

Wednesday, 4-5:30pm in USB 4151 with Emily

Wednesday, 4-5:30pm in USB 4151 with Nikhil

Friday, 8:30 am - 10 in AHG 128 with Carolina

Friday, 3-4:30pm in MH3315 with Zsigmond

Course Description

Our goal is to see how learning to think like an economist can help explain much of the world around us. We’ll start with the key building blocks of economics – the four big ideas of cost-benefit analysis, opportunity cost, marginal analysis, and interdependence — and see how these tools can guide you to making better decisions. We will then explore supply and demand and use this to better understand international trade, externalities and environmental problems, the labor market, inequality and poverty, how business set prices, how to make strategic decisions, and how to respond to risk, uncertainty, and imperfect information. Throughout, we’ll see how the same ideas that illuminate the business world can help you make better decisions in your everyday life. Welcome to the wonderful world of economics!

Why Study Economics?

Economics provides a powerful lens for understanding the world around us. While many people see economics as synonymous with business and markets. It’s that, but it’s also so much more. With some practice, you’ll come to see economic forces in action whether you’re on a trading floor, at a wedding, watching a baseball game, or observing your friends interact. Alfred Marshall once described economics as the study of people "in the ordinary business of life.” That sounds about right to me.

Economists have a powerful influence on our world. Economists set prices on everything from ebooks to houses; they figure out how to save the environment, protect intellectual property, and whether to engage in international trade; they evaluate poverty, design social programs, set business strategies, and inform military strategy. They advise Presidents, state legislators, and local mayors, and they help run major corporations, small businesses, schools and hospitals, non-profits and governments. John Maynard Keynes once claimed that the “ideas of economists… both when they are right and when they are wrong are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed, the world is ruled by little else.”

Economic analysis can help you make better decisions. Every day, you are an economic actor, making decisions about whether to pursue an education, which partnerships (both romantic and strategic) to pursue, what to buy, what occupation to join, and whether to eat a healthy salad or a delicious burrito. Clear economic reasoning can be an essential input into every facet of your daily life.

Class Meetings

Lectures

Instructor: Professor Justin Wolfers

Contact: Please direct all course-related email to econ101-300@umich.edu

Lecture meeting times: Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:30-3:50pm.
Lecture meeting location: Modern Languages Building, Auditorium 3 (812 Washington St)

Discussion Section

See your class schedule for the time, location and leader of your discussion section.

Class sections will focus on reviewing and extending material from the week’s lectures as well as providing feedback on exams. Your section is as much a part of the class as lectures are, and material covered there is examinable. Your section leader is also available to provide advice and feedback.

Course Materials

Over recent years Professor Betsey Stevenson and I have developed an entirely new textbook for learning introductory economics. You will be the first cohort to ever study from the complete version. The charge for this: $0. Yes, you read that right: Free. Nada. Nothing. And because I like you so much, I’m willing to offer you a further 50% discount. 

Rather than charge you hundreds of dollars for the book, I’m asking for just two things:

1. That you come to class prepared, having done the reading ahead of time. 

2. That you provide me with feedback on any errors / typos / mistakes as you read them. I will be sending around a few surveys and trying to elicit feedback on how I can do a better job. Please help me improve this book so that I can better help future generations of economics students.

The textbook will only be available electronically (apologies, no hard copies -- an unavoidable constraint that comes with free textbooks), but you can download it for use while offline. Details are available here.

Course Website

All course materials will be posted to our class Canvas site: https://umich.instructure.com/courses/317394. We will use this site for:

• Downloading copies of extra readings (the textbook will be supplied through a different website)
• Downloading copies of the class slides posted before each class
• Completing online problem sets
• Uploading “Economics in Action Essays”
• Communicating about course logistics

Assignments and Grading

Grading

Your grade for this course will be determined by the points you earn during class as follows. There are a maximum of 1000 points available, broken down as follows:

Midterm #1:                                  150 points

Midterm #2:                                  150 points

Cumulative final:                           400 points

Economics in Action essays:  150 points [3 best scores count]

Graded homework:                     150 points [10 best scores count]

Curves: Grades will be distributed as follows: A+ for >97.00%, A for 93.00-96.99%, A- for 90.00-92.99%, B+ for 87.00-89.99%, B for 83.00-86.99%, B- for 80.00-82.99%, C+ for 77.00-79.99%, C for 73.00-76.99%, C- for 70.00-72.99%, D+ for 67.00-69.99%, D for 60.00-66.99%.

This grading system will be used as long as at least 35% of students earn a grade in the A range (A+, A, A-) and at least 75% of students earn a grade in the A-B range (from A+ to B-). If that does not occur, then the top 35% of the class will receive a grade in the A range and the next 40% of the class will receive a grade in the B range or better.

Exams

• Midterm exam #1 (October 8, 8:00pm-10pm) will focus on your understanding of the first third of the course, mostly pertaining to supply and demand analysis.
• Midterm exam #2 (November 5, 8:00pm-10pm) will focus on your understanding of the second third of the course, which is mostly applications of economic analysis to public policy problems.
• Final exam (December 20, 1:30pm-3:30pm): The final exam will be cumulative, so will test not only the new material you learn in the final third of the class (on business strategy), but also the material in all previous lectures.

Economics in Action essays

Your task is simple: Take an observation from your everyday life or from the news, and explain it through the lens of a concept that you learned in class. Each “essay” is a mere 500 words. Be creative. Be interesting. Be brief. You will have four opportunities to submit essays, and your best three count for your grade. Each essay should cover topics taught after the due date of the previous Economics in Action essay. To submit, you upload your essays into Canvas, as either a Word, Acrobat, or text file, by 11pm on the due date:

• Essay #1: September 29
• Essay #2: October 27
• Essay #3: November 17
• Essay #4: December 8

Problem sets

Roughly every week there will be an online problem set to review your understanding of recent lectures. These will typically be due at 11pm on a Tuesday or Thursday. There will be eleven problem sets in total, and the best ten will count toward your final grade. The due dates for these problem sets are all posted on Canvas. Students can use notes and lecture slides, but the problem sets must be completed independently.

Class Policies

For the most part, this class follows default departmental policies found at: https://lsa.umich.edu/econ/undergraduates/policies-and-procedures.html. This syllabus supersedes the default policies where they differ.

Class Preparation

You should do two things before each lecture:

1. Read the assigned readings. Lectures are a complement to the reading, and they proceed under the assumption that you have done the assigned reading. If you fail to read, you will likely struggle with the material. And if you fail to really keep up with the early material on supply and demand, the course will quickly become impossible to complete. I will post all readings a few days ahead of class.
2. Print out the slides ahead of class. Studies show that the best way to retain information is to take notes, using pencil and paper. Yes, this is stone age technology, but it also aids retention enormously. I will post a set of slides ahead of class, and advise that you print them out so that you can annotate them as we go. The slides themselves are not meant to be a comprehensive summary of the material – that is what the lecture is for, and so you should be ready to take notes.

This brings me to…

Electronic Devices

In the first lecture, we will discuss whether to allow computers, tablets or cellphones in class. My guess is that as a class, you’ll decide to ban them. Come to class ready to engage the material, and look me in the eye.

Photography, or voice or video recording of class is not permitted without the instructor’s consent.

Academic Integrity

Students at the University of Michigan are held to the highest standard of academic integrity. If you are found to have committed academic dishonesty in this course, you will automatically fail the course.

Emergencies and Health Problems

Students are held to the expectations outlined in the LSA Community Standards of Academic Integrity when seeking any accommodation due to absence. My policy regarding students who miss graded components of the course due to illness or personal emergency is as follows:

1. If your absence due to illness causes you to miss an exam, according to LSA policy, we have the right to require additional documentation verifying the cause of absence. If you provide medical documentation verifying that you were unable to take that exam, the options available to make up a missed exam will be limited.
2. For problem sets only the best ten of your scores count, and for the Economic in Action essays only the best three count. Because this means that your lowest scores will be dropped, this gives you a buffer in case of illness or personal emergency, because your lowest scores will be dropped. As such, there are no makeups or extended deadlines on problem sets or essays.
3. If you decide to take an exam (or submit any work), that grade will not be modified afterwards to take illness into account.

If you are going to miss an exam as a result of a medical emergency you must provide documentation to Dr. Zamzow. In order for a medical excuse to be approved, you must have seen a physician on the day or the day before the exam. The doctor must complete the medical emergency form available on the class website. You must present the required certification as soon as it is safe to do so, and only after that will a determination be made as to whether you are excused.

Special Accommodations

If you believe you need an accommodation for a disability, please let Dr. Zamzow know during the first two weeks of class. Some aspects of this course may be modified to facilitate your participation and progress. As soon as you make Dr. Zamzow aware of your needs, he can work with the Office of Services for Students with Disabilities to help determine appropriate accommodations. Any information you provide will be treated as private and confidential.