Announcements:
Microeconomics
Economics 210C
(http://www.econ.ucsb.edu/~deacon/econ210c.htm)
Robert
Deacon
Winter 2008
Office hours: W 2:00-3:30 or by
appointment, 3040 North Hall, deacon@econ.ucsb.edu.
Exams
and Grading: Grades will be based on
one midterm exam scheduled for February 7
(35%), a final exam scheduled for March 20, 12:00-3:00pm (50%) and problem sets
(15%).
Course
content: This course covers the material
in Mas-Colell, et al, Microeconomic Theory (1995) Chapters 10-13
and possibly 14, plus a few supplementary readings. The supplementary readings
are not intended to introduce new theoretical concepts. Rather, they are
included to illustrate how concepts and methods from the text can be adapted to
applied problems and to suggest a broader range of questions that can be
examined using the approaches developed in class.
Chapter 10, Competitive Markets.
Supplementary reading: Robert T. Deacon and Jon Sonstelie, “Price
Controls and Rent Dissipation with Endogenous Transaction Costs,” American
Economic Review, Vol. 81, No. 5 (December 1991) 1361-1373.
Chapter 11, Externalities and Public Goods.
Skip: Depletable Externalities in Sec. 11D; Decentralized Bargaining
in Sec. 11E; Example 11.AA.1 in Appendix A.
Supplementary reading: Assar Lindbeck and Jorgen W. Weibull, “Balanced-Budget
Redistribution as the Outcome of Political Competition,” Public Choice
52 (1987) 273-297.
Midterm
Exam (Feb. 7)
Chapter 12, Market Power.
Skip: Example 12.C.2 in Sec. 12C, The Linear City Model of Product
Differentiation; Entry and Welfare in Sec. 12.E; Appendix B. In
Appendix A we will only cover Nash
Reversion and the Nash Reversion Folk Theorem.
Supplementary reading: TBA.
Chapter 13, Adverse Selection, Signaling and
Screening.
Skip: ‘Small type’ section on pages 448-450; Reasonable-Beliefs Refinements
in Signaling Games, Appendix A.
Supplementary reading: Kelly Bedard, 2001. “Human
Capital versus Signaling Models: University Access and High School Dropouts.”
Journal of Political Economy, 190(4) (2001) 749-775.
Chapter
14, The Principal-Agent Problem.
Skip:TBA.
Supplementary reading: TBA.
Final Exam March 20, 12:00-3:00pm