Econ 100C

Economics 100C

Intermediate Economic Theory

Spring Term, 2009

Welcome to the Economics 100C Website. Here you will find the course syllabus, a schedule of lessons, homework and examinations, and some bits of advice. Students in this class will be expected to check this site regularly. We will routinely use this site for posting announcements and homework assignments.

Instructor: Ted Bergstrom

Office: North Hall 2052

Office Hours: Th 4-5:30 and by appointment.

Email: tedb@econ.ucsb.edu

Announcements:

Check here for new announcements.

Course Introduction

This is a sequel to Economics 100A and 100B in which we stress applications of techniques that you have learned in 100A and 100B. If you did not do well in Econ 100A and 100B, this is not the course for you. In this course, we will build on things you learned in 100A and 100B, and we will add some more advanced material. The only textbook material that we will use besides the readings found on the Web are a few chapters from Varian's Intermediate Microeconomics and Bergstrom and Varian's Workouts. Currently the website has a rough outline of what we will be doing and when. A more detailed outline of the course will be filled in as the course progresses. Check regularlyat this class website.

You will be expected to attend class regularly and to come to class ready to discuss the attached readings. I will take attendance and I will call on people regularly and record whether they were prepared. In addition to attendance and class participation, grades will be based on a midterm, a final, and regular homework assignments.

Approximate Class Schedule

Think of this as a forecast--like the weather report. It is fairly accurate for the short term, but we will reserve some flexibility to make changes in the the schedule in response to the march of events.

Unit 1--Economics of Information Technology

March 31

Classroom experiment with Network Externalities and Picture Phones

Readings: Please read these materials before coming to class on Thursday and be prepared to discuss your readings in class.
                  Giovanni Caselli and the pantelegraph: http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/history/caselli.html
                Alexander Bain and electric telegraphy http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/history/bain.html
                   A history of competing word processors --Leibowitz and Margolis
                   A history of competing spreadsheets --Leibowitz and Margolis
                  Discussion of Network Externalities and homework assignment taken from Experiments with Economic Principles
                  Read pages 658-664 of Chapter 35: Information Technology in Intermediate Microeconomics by H. Varian

The homework assignment, which is found on pages 29-31 at the end of the Discussion of Network Externalities
will be due on Tuesday, April 7.

April 2

We will discuss network externalities, theory and applications. Prepare for class by reading the assignment for today.
   (Remember: Class participation determines part of your course grade)

Readings: Please read the remainder of Chapter 35, Network Externalities from Intermediate Microeconomics before coming to class on April 7.

April 7

Classroom Experiment with Competing standards (Computer operating Systems)

First Homework assignment is due today. See March 31, assignment.

Readings: Please read the following materials and be prepared to discuss them in class on April 10

Clio and the Economics of QWERTY--Paul David
The Fable of the Keys--Leibowitz and Margolis
Economics of Bilingualism--Church and King

April 9 Discussion of Information Technology.   Prepare for class by reading the assignment for today.
   (Remember: Class participation determines part of your course grade)

Readings: Read the remainder of Chapter 35: Information Technology in Intermediate Microeconomics by H. Varian, pages 658-664
Homework assignment: Problems 1, 2,3, and 9 in Bergstrom and Varian, Workouts , Chapter 35

April 9
Second Homework assignment is due today. See April 9, assignment.