WELCOME TO ECONOMICS E- 1010 : MICROECONOMIC THEORY

1. WELCOMETOECONOMICS E-1010:MICROECONOMIC THEORY Fall 2009 W, 5:30-7:30 Maxwell Dworkin G115 Robert Neugeboren 51 Brattle St, Rm 521 TA: Rajiv Shankar W 3-4 and by app’t. rshankar@fas.harvard.edu neugebor@fas.harvard.edu Sections: T, 5:30-6:30 or 6:30-7:30 TBA Website: www.isites.harvard.edu/k63102

2. Today’s Agenda • Go Over Syllabus • Requirements • Policies • Topics • What is Microeconomics? • An Example • Next Time

3. Description Economics E-1010 presents the basic analytical tools of microeconomics. We will start by looking at the decision-making of individual consumers and ask how these decisions can be optimized, or improved. Next, we will look at how firms make and coordinate their decisions under varying market structures, including perfect competition and monopoly.

4. Description Then we will look at strategic behavior in imperfectly competitive markets, making use of concepts from game theory such as Nash equilibrium. Finally, we will take up topics including (from among?) bargaining theory, information economics, externalities, public goods, and welfare analysis.

5. Description ECE-1010 is taught at the intermediate level and is appropriate for students who have already completed a first-year “principles” course in microeconomics. Mathematical preparation at the level of basic algebra is a prerequisite, and familiarity with first-year calculus will be of help. Students will learn the key tools and principles economists apply to understand a wide range of phenomena, using graphical representations, some math, and plain logic to present the important ideas and solve basic microeconomic problems.

6. Requirements 10% Sections. Attendance mandatory. 20% Problem Sets. 4, every 2-3 weeks. 30% Midterm Exam. October 14. 40% Final Exam. December 16. Graduate Credit: Additional material will be assigned on problem sets and exams.

7. Readings There are several good textbooks on intermediate microeconomics. Either of the following are recommended: Besanko & Braeutigam, Microeconomics, 3rd(Wiley). Pindyck & Rubinfeld, Microeconomics,6th (Prentice Hall). A good alternative is Varian, Intermediate Microeconomics. Students are expected to read the assigned chapters before the corresponding class session. From time to time, additional background references and supplementary readings may be assigned.

8. Course Policies Academic Honesty Harvard takes matters of academic honesty very seriously. While you may discuss assignments with your classmates and others, make sure any written material you submit is your own work. Use of old course materials, including problem sets and exams from online sources, is prohibited.

9. Course Policies Academic Honesty You should consult the Official Register of the Harvard Extension School and the website http://www.extension.harvard.edu to familiarize yourself with the possible serious consequences of academic dishonesty. Late Policy Problem sets must be submitted, in either on line or in person, by 5:30 on Wednesday.

10. Course Policies Sections Part of your grade will be based on your participation in section (whether live or on-line). Sections will be especially helpful in preparing for problem sets and exams. Website & Textbook Support All official course announcements will appear on the course website, including assignments, answer keys, and links to the publisher’s website.

11. Topics UNIT I CONSUMER CHOICE UNIT IIFIRMS & MARKETS Oct 14 MIDTERM UNIT III COMPETITIVE STRATEGY UNIT IV INFORMATION & WELFARE Dec 16 FINAL EXAM

12. Topics UNIT I CONSUMER CHOICE P-R chapters 9/2 Introduction: What is Microeconomics? (1-2) 9/9 Theory of the Consumer (3) 9/16 Individual and Market Demand (4)

13. Topics UNIT II FIRMS & MARKETS 9/23 Theory of the Firm (6) 9/30 Profit Maximization (7) 10/7 Perfect Competition (8-9) 10/14 MIDTERM

14. Topics UNIT III COMPETITIVE STRATEGY 10/21 Monopoly (10-11) 10/28 Duopoply (12) 11/4 Strategic Behavior (13) kkk

15. Topics UNIT IV INFORMATION & WELFARE 11/18 Decision under Uncertainty (5) 12/2 Bargaining and Negotiation (17) 12/9 Externalities and Public Goods. (18) 12/26 FINAL EXAM

16. UNIT I: Theory of the Consumer • Introduction: What is Microeconomics? • Theory of the Consumer • Individual & Market Demand 9/2

17. Theory of the Consumer • What is Microeconomics? • The Assumption of Rationality • Equilibrium & the Exchange Economy • Optimal Choice: An Example • Next Time

18. What is Microeconomics? Economists study everything from money and prices to child rearing and the environment. They analyze small-scale decision-making and large-scale international policy-making. They compile data about the past and make predictions about the future. Many economic ideas have currency in everyday life, cropping up in newspapers, magazines, and policy debates. The amount you pay every month to finance a car or new home purchase will depend on interest rates. Business people make investment plans based on expectations of future demand, and policy makers devise budgets to achieve desired social goals.

19. What is Microeconomics? Across the broad range of topics that interest economists is a unique approach to knowledge, something common to the way all economists see the world. Economists share certain assumptions about how the economy works, and they use standard methods for analyzing data and communicating their ideas. What is Macroeconomics?

20. What is Microeconomics? The Dismal Science Since its beginning, economics has been preoccupied with the problem of scarcity. The hours in a day, the money in one’s pocket, the food the ground can supply are all limited; spending resources on one activity necessarily comes at the expense of some other, foregone opportunity. Scarcity provides economics with its central problem: how to make choices under constraint?

21. What is Microeconomics? We do not say that the production of potatoes is economic activity and the production of philosophy is not. We say rather that, in so far as either kind of activity involves the relinquishment of other desired alternatives, it has its economic aspect. There are no limitations on the subject matter of Economic Science save this. - Lionel Robbins

22. The Assumption of Rationality Economists approach a wide range of topics with the assumption that the behavior under investigation is best understood as if it were rational (though we know that not all behavior is, in fact, rational) and that the best explanations, models, and theories we can construct take rationality as the norm. Rationality, in the words of Frank Hahn, is the “weak causal proposition” that sets all economic analyses in motion.

23. The Assumption of Rationality Economics can be distinguished from other social sciences by the belief that most (all?) behavior can be explained by assuming that agents have stable, well-defined preferences and make rational choices consistent with those preferences. - Colin Camerer and Richard Thaler.

24. The Assumption of Rationality Rationality: the assumption that agents prefer more of what they want to less; Max E(U). Agents’ wants, or preferences, are not necessarily self-interested. One can want others to be better off and rationally pursue their interests as well. Economists assume that whatever their preferences, agents will attempt to maximize their satisfaction, subject to the constraints they face.

25. Equilibrium & Exchange Whoever offers to another a bargain of any kind proposes to do this. Give me that which I want, and you shall have that which you what …; and it is in this manner that we obtain from one another the far greater part of those good offices we stand in need of. It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest. - Adam Smith

26. Equilibrium & Exchange Yet an isolated bargain is not all Smith had in mind. For one thing, it is likely that a number of terms of exchange (prices) exist which both sides would find advantageous, and it possible the outcome could be influenced by capricious or coercive means either side might have. Where instead each actor faces a very large number of bargains: the market.

27. Equilibrium & Exchange In the market, each individual is powerless to set prices, which are instead determined by the interaction of very many individuals. Equilibrium as a balance of forces The Bargain Buyer and Seller try to agree on a price. Buyer is better off at a price less than b, Seller at a price above s. If b < s, there is no price they can agree on: b(uyer’s reservation price) 0 50 100 150 200 250 s(eller’s reservation price) S(urplus) = b(uyer’s reservation price) – s(eller’s reservation price)

28. Equilibrium & Exchange In the market, each individual is powerless to set prices, which are instead determined by the interaction of very many individuals. Equilibrium as a balance of forces The Bargain Buyer and Seller try to agree on a price. Buyer is better off at a price less than b, Seller at a price above s. If b > s, we say there is a positive zone of agreement, or surplus: b(uyer’s reservation price) 0 50 100 150 200 250 s(eller’s reservation price) S(urplus) = b(uyer’s reservation price) – s(eller’s reservation price)

29. Equilibrium & Exchange In the market, each individual is powerless to set prices, which are instead determined by the interaction of very many individuals. Equilibrium as a balance of forces The Bargain Buyer and Seller try to agree on a price. Buyer is better off at a price less than b, Seller at a price above s. If b > s, we say there is a positive zone of agreement, or surplus: b(uyer’s reservation price) 0 50 100 150 200 250 s(eller’s reservation price) S(urplus) = b(uyer’s reservation price) – s(eller’s reservation price)

30. Equilibrium & Exchange In the market, each individual is powerless to set prices, which are instead determined by the interaction of very many individuals. Just as each particle seeks its center of gravity, each rational individual seeks its own satisfaction. Yet just as no particle exerts its will over the structure of the universe, no individual can influence the workings of the market. Equilibrium as a harmony of rational forces.

31. Equilibrium & Exchange Smith’s Radical Idea The way to promote the Wealth of Nations is to unleash the productive power of individuals, allowing individuals to “truck, barter, and trade.” to innovate and compete in pursuit of their interests. And while today, we often associate defense of free markets and laissez faire economics with conservative political positions, 200 years ago, Smith’s ideas were a challenge to the traditional, inherited sources of power.

32. Equilibrium & Exchange A Theory of Prices Classical economics (political economy) challenged traditional notions of a “just price,” orthe king’s price, with the “theory of value.” For contemporary microeconomics, prices are determined by the interactions of rational individuals, where the outcome, or resting point, represents a balance of self-interested forces. In equilibrium, though each individual is trying to get the best of the bargain, prices are (under certain conditions) determined independently of their efforts.

33. Optimal Choice: An Example Freddie consumes only apples and oranges. Apples cost $1 and oranges cost $1.50. If Freddie has $100 to spend, how many apples and how many oranges should he buy? What information is missing? Freddie likes oranges twice as much as apples.

34. Next Time 9/9Theory of the Consumer Pindyck & Rubenfeld, Chapter 3. or Besanko & Braeutigam, Chapters 3-4.