Concordia University

John Molson School of Business

Finance Department

A NA LY S I S O F M A R K E T S
COMM 220 Sections J & DD
Course Outline, Winter 2018

Analysis of Markets is an undergraduate economics course that looks at some of the

benefits and problems of capitalism through the functioning of its markets. The
premise is that having choice is good—freedom in the bigger context—as it applies
to trade. The difference between Markets and other introductory microeconomics
courses is that we’ll flip back and forth between markets for real goods and finan-
cial goods. Our discussions will draw on economic theory, a set of readings, class
notes, homework quizzes, and sometimes, market experiments. The goal is to get
you thinking about economics scientifically.

Gregory Lypny
Lectures section J: Tuesdays, 11:45 a.m. to 2 p.m., MB 2.210
Lectures section DD: Tuesdays, 5:45 p.m. to 8:15 p.m., MB S2.210
Tutorials (Kalima Vico): Tuesdays, 3 p.m to 4 p.m., H 537
Office hours: Mondays from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m., MB 11.307
gregory.lypny@concordia.ca
Course materials
You can find course materials in the downloads folder on our Moodle homepage.
There are slides, class notes, help files, a homework folder with review quizzes, and
a demos folder with interactive demonstrations. Download and install Wolfram’s
free CDF Player app. You’ll need it to work with the quizzes and demos.

Readings
Gregory Lypny, 2018, Economics Class Notes. There is a chapter on each topic we’ll be
covering, along with references to articles and optional textbook readings. See
“Finding Articles Online.pdf” for help on getting the articles.

Grading

Assignment 1 5% Wed., Feb. 7, 2018 by 5 p.m.

Assignment 2 5% Wed., Mar. 28, 2018 by 5 p.m.
Test 40% Tues., Feb. 27, 2018; in-class, multiple-choice, topics 1 to 4
Final exam 50% Same format as the test
There is no makeup for the test; if you don’t write it, its weight will be added to the
final exam. My test and exam are not common with the other sections of COMM
220.

Code of conduct
Read the code of conduct on Concordia’s website. Abide by it and no one gets hurt.

Topics
The topics are covered in chapters 1 to 10 of my class notes.
1. Building Economic Models 6. Government Intervention
2. Utility Theory 7. Market Failure
3. Equilibrium 8. International Markets
4. Information 9. Intertemporal Markets
5. Production and Finance 10. Markets for Risk (maybe)

Grade conversion
A+ 90% and up B+ 77% to 79% C+ 67% to 69% D+ 57% to 59%
A 85% to 90% B 73% to 76% C 63% to 66% D 53% to 56%
A- 80% to 84% B- 70% to 72% C- 60% to 62% D- 50% to 52%
F Less than 50%

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