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

Office hours: MWF 11.15-11.45am, MW 2.30-4.0 pm, and by appointment.

Required Texts: *Arthur O'Sullivan and Steven M. Sheffrin, Microeconomics
Principles and Tools 2nd edition (Prentice Hall, Inc.2001) O/S
* Practicum (Study Guide) to O'Sullivan and Sheffrin by Janice
Boucher Breuer (Prentice Hall, Inc. 2001)
* Annual Editions: Microeconomics 02/03 edited by Don Cole
(Dushkin Publishing Group) AE
* Robert Heilbroner: The Worldly Philosophers (Rev. 7th ed. Simon and Schuster 1999) RH

Course Requirements:

* Three mid-term exams. First mid-term on Monday, Feb.18
Second Mid-term on Wednesday, March 27
Third Mid-term on Friday, April 19
Final Exam (cumulative) during exam week

* Three papers : due Monday, Feb.25, Monday, April 1, Friday April 26

The final grade will be a straight average of all seven grades.
*Regular class attendance is very important. Regular use of the study guide and the CD-Rom exercises is essential if you want to do well. Please see me if you are having any difficulties with the class. My aim is to help you understand economics and do really well on the exams and papers. I encourage you to form study groups to do the problems in the text and study guide.

*All announcements about the class, weekly assignments etc. will be made at the beginning of class. You are responsible for obtaining this information if, for some reason you should be absent that day.

*I will announce in class the material that will be covered on each exam which will depend on how fast we are going in the class. We will generally do a review of the material for each exam in the preceding class.

Outline of the Course

I. Supply and Demand
O/S Chapters 1-4
AE Readings 1: How much for a life? Try $3 million to $5 million.
2.The Company We'll Keep
4.Following the Money but Also the Mind
5. Statistics and Even Lore of the Dismal Science.
6. Why you can't tell what things cost.
RH Chapters I, II, III, IV
Hernando de Soto, The Mystery of Capital, Chapters 1,2 and 3 (K drive and on Reserve in the Library)

II. The elasticity of demand, government intervention and consumer choice.

O/S Chapters 5-7
AE Readings 7:Smoke signals
8:Entree economics
9 Buying Power by the Hour
RH Chapters V, VI, VII, VIII

III. Market structure and pricing; costs and perfect competition

O/S Chapters 8 and 9
AE Reading 13. The Core of the Problem: Three Hard Years Push West Michigan Apple Growers Out of the Business

IV Monopoly and Oligopoly

O/S Chapters 10-14
AE Readings 10: I got it cheaper than you.
12:The Law as the Free Market's Rogue: Hostage to the Prisoner's Dilemma.
16. How Burger King Got Burned in Quest to Make the Perfect Fry.
17. The Joys of Oligopoly
20 OPEC and the Voice of Doom
23. Patent medicine
RH Chapters IX, X, XI

V. Market Failures: Externalities and Public Goods

O/S Chapters 15 and 16
AE Readings:39 The Real Price of Gas
40 Making Green Policies Pay Off
45.Congested Parks- a Pricing Dilemma
48: The Free Market for Clean Air.

VI. The Labor Market

O/S Chapter 18
AE Readings: 24:Downsized and Out? Job Security and American Workers
25: Tight Job Market Pinches Temporary Help Firms
26. Where Supply and Demand Meets Wages and Myth..
27. Debating the Minimum Wage
28 Homemaker as Worker in the United States
29. Immigrants Fill Critical Gap in Wide-Open Job Market.
30. Union Membership Hits Low Point
32: Building Prosperity from the Bottom Up.
33: Worker Capitalists? Giving Employees and Ownership Stake.

VII. Poverty and Public Policy

O/S Chapter 19
AE Readings 50: Growing American Inequality: Sources and Remedies.
51: Inequality in the United States.
52 The Victimless Income Gap
53: The State of the Poor.
54. The ‘Undeserving Poor' Deserve More Help.
55. Without a Net: Whom the New Welfare Law Helps and Hurts
56: Corporate Welfare Remains Unchecked.
57: How to Slip Out of America's Housing Squeeze.
59: Equality in Hiring Remains the Key to Civil Rights Goals
Rebecca Blank, It Takes a Nation, Chapters 1 and 2
Bradley Schiller, The Economics of Poverty and Discrimination, Chapter 11
(Blank and Schiller on the K drive and on Reserve in the Library).

VIII. The International Economy: International Trade and Public Policy

O/S Chapter 20