Professor Rosalind S. Seneca Tel: Drew: 973-408-3433
Economics Department Home: 973-822-9752
Office: HS S303 Fax: 973-377-3086
Email: RSENECA@DREW.EDU

Office Hours: M.W. F. 11.15-11.45am; M.W. 2.30- 4.0 pm, and by appointment.

Required Texts: Microeconomics, 2nd edition by Jeffrey M.. Perloff (Addison Wesley, 2001)
Study Guide to accompany Microeconomics by Charles F. Mason and Robert Whaples (Addison Wesley, 2001)
The Tobacco Wars, by Walter Adams and James Brock (South-Western College
Publishing, 1999)

Course Requirements

Regular class attendance is required and will be recorded. If a class must be missed because of illness or other unavoidable contingency, please notify me beforehand. Appropriate and active participation in class discussions will also be noted.

Reading:

We begin the course at chapter 4 in the text. Students should review chapters 1-3 on their own.
Students should make sure to do the problems in the Study Guide after reading each chapter.
I will go over some of these problems at the end of each chapter.

Examinations:

There will be three mid-term examinations, a final examination and two class presentations. The exams are "closed book" The dates of the exams are:

First mid-term (20%): Friday, Feb.22
Second mid-term (20%): Monday, March 25
Third mid-term (20%): Wednesday, April17
Final examination (cumulative, 20%) During exam week as announced by the Registrar.
Two class presentations (10 % each)

All announcements, chapter and study guide assignments will be given at the beginning of class. If you miss a class make sure you find out about the announcements you missed.

Sequence of chapters:

Perloff, Chapter 1-3, Review
Perloff, Chapter 4, Consumer Choice
Chapter 5 Applying Consumer Theory pp.105-123, 130-142

First Mid-term: Friday, Feb.22

The Tobacco Wars, Chapter I, The Antecedents,
Chapter II, the Consumer Front. Monday, Feb.25

Perloff Chapter 6, Firms and Production
Chapter 7 Costs

Second Mid-term: Monday, March 25

Perloff Chapter 8 Competitive Firms and Markets

The Tobacco Wars: Chapter III, The Antitrust Front. Wednesday, April 3

Perloff, Chapter 9, Applying the Competitive Model
Chapter 10, General Equilibrium and Economic Welfare

Third Mid-term: Wednesday, April 17

The Tobacco Wars: Chapter IV, The Social Welfare Front
Chapter V, War and Peace Friday, April 19

Perloff, Chapter 11, Monopoly
Chapter 12 Pricing
Chapter 15 Factor Markets, pp. 501-512
Chapter 18 Externalities, Commons and Public Goods

(We may not complete all these chapters. How much we do varies each semester)

First Class Presentation: Each group of students will present one side of the tobacco controversy on the topics in each chapter of The Tobacco Wars. The rest of the class will discuss. Each presentation should be about ten to fifteen minutes.

Second Class Presentation: Each group makes a video , five to ten minutes long, that illustrates one or more of the economic concepts we have studied in class. The video should entertain as well as instruct. The Media Resource Center will provide you with a video camera and instructions about how to use it. Class presentations will take place at the beginning of class during the latter part of the semester.

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