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Today's Attendance Question
What song is playing right now?
No phones.
No tablets.*
No laptops.
* If you want to take notes on an iPad, please sit up front.
Christopher Makler
Stanford University Department of Economics
Econ 50: Lecture 1
Introductions
Course Overview
Course Structure and Policies
Math Review: Multivariable Functions and Level Sets
Luiz
Tobey
Tina
Nick
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What are you planning on majoring in?
Econ Department Peer Advising
VPTL Peer Tutoring
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Why are
you here?
"Individual consumer and firm behavior
under perfect competition.
The role of markets and prices in a decentralized economy.
Monopoly in partial equilibrium.
Economic tools developed from multivariable calculus using partial differentiation
and techniques for constrained and unconstrained optimization."
It's probably not the sexiness of the course description:
Strategic:
"knowing when" - given an unstructured problem, which model/framework is most relevant?
Schematic:
Procedural:
Declarative:
"knowing why" - how do different concepts/models relate to one other?
"knowing how" - given a well-defined problem, ability to follow correct procedure to solve it
"knowing that" - facts and figures, vocabulary
Strategic:
Develop rigorous approach to economic modeling; understand how assumptions map into conclusions.
Schematic:
Procedural:
Declarative:
Understand the relationships between
words, math, and graphs.
Learn the techniques of
optimization, equilibrium, and comparative statics.
Know the definitions of key economic terms.
The overall goal of this course is to prepare you
for all the courses -- and jobs -- that build upon this material...
...by providing you with technical training to solve problems...
...and the ability to take an unstructured situation in the real world
and convert it into a structured, solvable problem.
It's not about the particular models
we're looking at in this class.
It's about learning how to use
the "building blocks" of economic models
to construct models of things you're interested in.
Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.
SCIEPRO/GETTY IMAGES
Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.
This planet has — or rather had —
a problem, which was this:
😢
most of the people on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time.
Many solutions were proposed
for this problem...
...but most of these were largely concerned with the movements
of small green pieces of paper,
which is odd because on the whole
it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.
Resources
Technology
Stuff
Happiness
🌎
🏭
⌚️
🤓
Demand
Supply
Equilibrium
🤩
🏪
⚖
Optimization
Given a fixed set of circumstances (prices, technology, preferences), how do economic agents (consumers, firms) make choices?
Comparative Statics
How do changes in circumstances (changing prices, shifting technology, preferences, etc.) translate into changes in behavior?
Equilibrium
How do economic systems converge toward certain outcomes?
Purpose: get the most out of lecture, by providing incentives to
read the textbook before class and be fully present during class
Each category counts for 5% of your grade.
Each category has a 20 percentage point "boost":
if you get 80% or more right becomes 100%, 70% becomes 90%, etc.
Realistically, as long as you come to most classes and put in effort
into each of the quizzes, these don't affect your grade.
You do not need to email me if you're going to miss class.
You cannot "make up" PollEverywhere points.
Just make every effort to make it to every class you can.
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If you're going to miss class, what should you do?
Due each Tuesday and Saturday (none after an exam).
Each exercise (including old exam questions) is worth 3 points.
3 points (check-plus): You've got this!
2 points (check): You should review the solution set.
1 point (check-minus): You should review this material.
You do not have to do them all. Recommend doing 2-3 problems in each.
Full credit (100 points total) for 6.66 points per problem set.
Maximum 9 points per problem set.
No homeworks accepted after 8am morning after due (automatic grace period until then)
You must assign pages in Gradescope to get your work graded!
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If you don't have much time for homework, what should you do?
Fridays of Week 4, 6, and 8
Meant to be a way for you to self-assess and keep on track
Three exams means that the stakes are lower for each one than if we had one "killer midterm:"
Highest score is 20% of your grade
Second highest score is 10% of your grade
Lowest score is dropped
Note: if you miss two checkpoints, your highest possible grade in the course is a 90%.
Assume you will get COVID for the third exam, which will prevent you from taking it.
Wednesday, June 12 at 8:30am (set by University)
You must take the exam here in person unless you're traveling on Stanford business, or if you've started a summer job or internship; sorry.
If you have a summer job or internship, you are responsible for finding someone official to administer the test concurrently with the rest of the class. We need to know who that's going to be by Memorial Day (end of Week 8).
If you have to miss the final due to illness or emergency, you may take an Incomplete only if:
Friday, May 10
Checkpoint 2
Friday, April 26
Checkpoint 1
Wednesday, June 12
Final Exam
8:30am
THESE ARE THE EXAM DATES.
DO NOT SCHEDULE ANYTHING THAT FORCES YOU TO MISS AN EXAM!!!
PUT THEM IN YOUR CALENDAR.
Friday, May 24
Checkpoint 3
Price List
Alternative Grading Scheme:
Pay to Play!
Sponsored by
OFFER ONLY VALID APRIL 1
(APRIL FOOLS DAY)
All content is posted/linked within Canvas.
Each week has its own module with everything you need to know about that week.
Please use Ed Discussions to ask questions (not email).
Please submit homeworks via Gradescope.
Helpful videos from UCSD are available for free, courtesy of UCSD.
Link in the syllabus; videos corresponding to each class will be posted on the syllabus and on ED.
Advice for You from Former Students (from course evals)
"Be prepared for the psets to be fairly more difficult than the examples worked out during lecture.
Sometimes there might be a disconnect between lecture and psets, too."
"Class is difficult, but there are so many resources available to help you. Make use of office hours." |
"It's a lot of work, but if you stay on top of it, you'll be fine.
Definitely recommend doing all the psets and as many past exam questions as you can.
Makler's exam kinda made me want to cry, but everyone walked out kinda wanting to cry, so it's okay, probably."
"Organized, streamlined, and despairingly efficient.
This class crunches through concepts and ideas faster than you can get a good grip of them.
Makler is very approachable with questions, however, even if he memes on us a lot."
"...If you can, take the course together with your friends; they may be a great resource in helping you
grasp the course concepts! If you decide to take ECON 50, I hope you have a great time
and that you find a close-knit community of fellow enthusiasts of Economics."