First class on Zoom: click on this invite link:

zoom.us/j/68624940896?pwd=UURva0pJNzh2a0tlOFNFT0I3LzNXQT09

DOUGLAS COLLEGE
COMMERCE AND BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
Econ 1150-004
Principles of Microeconomics
Winter 2021
F: 8:30:11:20 am
COURSE INFORMATION AND SCHEDULE

Instructor: C. Fiifi Odoom

Office location: N4323
Telephone:
Zoom Office hrs
https://douglascollege-ca.zoom.us/j/67938619164?
pwd=OVAwdkFSWHplbWlWU2N3VEZ0c3kzdz09
Mon 8:00:8:30 am
Wed 12:00-12:30 am
Fri: 8:00-8:30 am
Fri 12:00-12:30 pm

Email: odoomc@douglascollege.ca. No e-mails, just engage during office hrs or before/after class.

COURSE MATERIAL
1. REQUIRED
Canada in the Global Environment, 10/e 9780134835181. Please refer to Pearson’s
login info at bottom of this document.

2. Recommended e-confinance: Now we are talking Value, by C. Fiifi Odoom. You

can get the book from Kendall Hunt, the publisher’s website -
www.kendallhunt.com/odoom. (see last page for downloading instructions)
EVALUATION
Weekly 20-questions in-class assignments, 10 in all, 30%
equally weighted, done during class after going
through sample (MC) and behind-the-chapter questions.
Term exam Fri, Feb 26, 2021 30%
Final Exam 40%

For mid-term exam, most questions will be drawn from:

- articles handed out (or posted on Blackboard)
- Applied questions building on the multiple choice ones

LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the day students should be able to:

 1. Use economic concepts of supply/demand in the determination of prices to evaluate conditions in
perfect, and especially under the more realistic imperfect markets.
2. Explain household behavior to arrive at demand curves
3. Examine price and output implications in profit maximization (loss minimization) under different
demand/cost/market structure conditions
4. Narrate economic consequences of government actions/interventions in different markets.

At the end of the day the following questions should make sense to you as a student sitting in this
microeconomics class.
 Tim Hortons now bought up by Burger King. Any benefit/value to you, or to me? To whom does
the benefit of such marriage go, to Burger King, to Tim’s, or to you?

 Why are you almost always locked into 2- or 3yr contracts with your favorite mobile phone
company, with virtually no choice? In a related question why do Canadians generally pay around
$50 for a decent phone service, a much higher rate that the Europeans and Americans?

 Flew anywhere on vacation or on a business trip lately? How much did you pay for your flight?
Why did you pay that much? Is the higher price because there are too few airlines in the industry,
or too many? Who benefits from such high prices? Are prices driven by cost (supply-side), or
something else?

Economists make a project out of finding out answers to the aforementioned questions, in otherwords
why and how such volatility ends up making you dole out that much cash than you are supposed to.
We will revisit such art/science of≥ ≤ such value-creating techniques. A brief lecture will be followed
by a supervised hands-on in-class work on questions at the end of each chapter. Then, students are
checked in to do their weekly assignments, to be done at one sitting. Absence from part of it or the
whole session means you do not get checked in - so no point for you for that particular assignment.

I will ONLY consider a doctor’s note or an official notification by the date of the exam as the sole
exceptions. Please note, this is in bold letters because I want to re-emphasize it.

Student’s Responsibilities
1. Please arrive in class on time,

2. No CELL PHONE use, no COMPUTER use in class unless using e-textbooks.

3. It is mandatory that you read over AT LEAST the last chapter covered in class,
preferably the one for the next class.

4. Before coming for discussions in my office, please read over materials pertaining to the
question(s) to which answers are being sought.

Exams

5. The best way to prepare or them is to read the chapters listed here, and do the questions
accompanying them. From here if you still do not understand, then we can talk. So please
DO NOT ask me what is going to be in the exams because the answer is right here:
similar to the questions specified on the:

a. outline below at the end of each chapter,

b. in the assignment(s)
 c. questions that I will give out in class
d. synthesis of these questions/theories, many of which are embedded in the
videos/other readings assigned.

In general, the type of multiple choice/fill-in-blanks questions found in other Study Guides
helps you zoom in on little details that the textbook highlights. Making a point to do as
many of them after each chapter will help you immensely in preparing for exams.

6. In otherwords, if you keep up with the readings, do the questions in the book, and take
care of the assignments, you will find out that the exam questions are mirror images.

7. Exams comprehensive? Yup! Each chapter builds on each other, though a little bit of
emphasis on the latter chapters because they tend to integrate the previous chapters in
little ways. Please try to understand all materials, including videos because they are
different faces of the same theories.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY:

Please visit https://www.douglascollege.ca/sites/default/files/docs/finance-dates-and-

deadlines/Academic%20Integrity%20Policy%20w%20Flowchart.pdf

Students are responsible for the letter and spirit of this document. To reiterate, you are required to
know what ‘cheating’ is. ‘I did not know’ will not be an adequate defense when caught, so please
visit this document if in doubt.

SEMESTER DATES TOPICS AND ACTIVITIES ASSIGNMENTS

WEEKS (order AND
here important but EXERCISES
in case we do not
finish, say, week 2
materials in wk 2,
we will do so in wk
3)
Wk 01
What is Economics?
-Scarcity, choice, rationality assumption, production Please do all
Positive and Normative Economics questions at the
back of each
- Graphical representation of some of such issues chapter that we
What is a system? cover.

- What is an economic system?

- How does such a system solve the distributional

problem of To whom, how, and what need to be
produced question?

- Is Canada at the left, right, or center of such

ideological/distributional spectrum?

Consumer Economics

Wk 2, 3 Ch 3, 6 (Ch 5, e-confinance) The Demand for, and supply

of Goods/services
- Determinant of demand
- derivation of demand curves

Ch. 4 (Ch 5, e-confinance) Elasticity

- price elasticity (no midpoint calculation)
- income elasticity
Wk 4 - cross/price elasticity
- elasticity and total revenue
- other elasticities
- applications of these demand concepts

Economics of the public sector

Wk 5 Ch 15, 16 (Ch 3, e-confinance) Govt. Actions in

Market: externality, public goods, and
market failure

- externality - +ve and –ve

- correcting for externality
- common property
- recycling. Good idea? How good?
- private versus social cost/benefits
Wk 6 Ch 10 Cost and Output Determination
- economic and accounting profit
- short-run, long-run average costs
- (dis)economies of scale
- law of diminishing returns
- derivation of supply curve
- factors affecting supply curve,
revisited

Mid-term exam: Fri, Feb 26, 2021

Materials up to this point only.
Wk 7 Ch 12. Monopoly compared to perfect competition (Ch 4,
e-confinance)
Wk 8
13, 14. (Ch 4, e-confinance) Monopolistic Competition,
Oligopoly
- market structure
- barrier to entry
- oligopoly behavior
- game theory
- oligopoly vrs. Competition

Wk 9
Competition policy: (Ch 12, e-confinance)
(De)regulation of business (other material to be
posted at MyDouglas)
- types of regulations
- (a) economic (b)cost of service
- regulator’s behavior
- history of anti-combine legislations
- what is prohibited by Competition Policy

Wk. 10 17. (Ch 13, e-confinance) Markets for Factors of Pdn

(Labor,
Wk. 11 specifically
- labor demand and supply
- determinants of labor D and S
- Union goals and labor unions
- Unions helpful? To whom?

Final exam – as scheduled.

GOOD LUCK!
 Letter Grade System

Grade Numerical Value Achievement

Level Description

A% 4.33 95% and above

A 4.00 90% to 94% Outstanding
A- 3.67 85% to 89% Achievement

B+ 3.33 80% to 84%

B 3.00 75% to 79% Good
B- 2.67 70% to 745 Achievement

C+ 2.33 65% to 69% Satisfactory

C 2.00 60% to 64% Achievement
C- 1.67 55% to 59%

P 1.00 50% to 54% Marginal

Achievement

F 0.00 49% and below Unsatisfactory

Achievement

UN 0.00 Student completed less than 70% of the total evaluation of

the course, or missed more than 30% of the classes where
the instructor’s Course Outline specifies that attendance is
a course requirement.
IMPORTANT NOTE(S):

Students are responsible for all class announcements concerning course information and
schedule changes whether or not they are in attendance.

e-confinance downloading instructions.

To get this book on Kendall Hunt website, click on :

https://he.kendallhunt.com/odoom
 click add-to-cart
 click check-out
 click on new customer, not returning customer
 create profile with a Canadian address (ignore the $1 S&H (it is an e-book so you will be charged only
$30, not $31)
 enter a credit card and other info. If asked for sales tax, skip. Done!