Economics 1010a: INTERMEDIATE MICROECONOMICS

Harvard College, Fall 2019

Lectures: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 10:30 am – 11:45 am, Emerson 105

Instructor: Maxim Boycko mb1010a@gmail.com
Sections: weekly, Tue-Wed-Thu-Fri
Co-Head Teaching Assistants: Stephanie Cheng stephaniecheng@g.harvard.edu
Shangda Xu xus@harvard.college.edu
Canvas Website: https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/61160

Economics 1010a introduces core microeconomic models of consumers, firms, and markets, and
develops their application to real world issues. The course is designed for sophomores
concentrating in economics, but other students are very welcome.

Note: Economics 1010a fulfills the intermediate microeconomic theory requirement for Economics
concentrators. Students may take either Economics 1010a or Economics 1011a (which heavily
relies on calculus) for credit. This course meets the General Education requirement for Empirical
and Mathematical Reasoning.

BEFORE ENROLLING IN THE COURSE, PLEASE READ THE WHOLE SYLLABUS

TO UNDERSTAND COURSE LOGISTICS, POLICIES, AND GRADING RULES

Contents (please download the .pdf file for clickable table of contents)

Prerequisites ......................................................................................................................................................................2
Course Requirements and Grading ...................................................................................................................................2
Canvas Website .................................................................................................................................................................2
Textbook ...........................................................................................................................................................................2
Lectures and Lecture Notes...............................................................................................................................................2
Sections .............................................................................................................................................................................3
Office Hours......................................................................................................................................................................3
Classroom Quizzes (CRQs) ..............................................................................................................................................3
Weekly Multiple-Choice Quizzes (MCQs).......................................................................................................................4
Weekly Long Problems (LPs) ...........................................................................................................................................4
Final MCQ/LP Scores .......................................................................................................................................................5
Missed Midterms ..............................................................................................................................................................5
Course Policies..................................................................................................................................................................5
Getting Help ......................................................................................................................................................................6
Course Outline and Textbook Readings ...........................................................................................................................7
1010a Course Staff ............................................................................................................................................................8
Economics 1010a Calendar 2019 ......................................................................................................................................9

Boycko Econ 1010a Syllabus Page 1 of 9

Prerequisites
Economics 10a and Mathematics 1a, or their equivalents. The students should be familiar with
introductory microeconomics, e.g. the basic supply and demand model. Calculus will be used
sparingly, but students should have a good grip on the fundamentals. During the shopping period
we will run two review sessions: on math and on basic supply and demand to help students check
their understanding of these prerequisites.

Course Requirements and Grading

• Three exams: two midterms, on 10/9 at [7 pm] and on 11/20 at [7 pm], and the final. Each
exam includes a multiple-choice quiz (MCQ) and two long problems (LP), similar to the ones you
will solve as part of weekly problem sets.

• Eight weekly problem sets, each containing an MCQ and an LP. They cover material from
several preceding lectures.

• Class participation will be measured through classroom quizzes (CRQs), employing iClicker
software.

• To calculate your final numerical score the following weights will be applied: classroom quizzes
5%; weekly MCQs 10%; weekly LPs 10%; first midterm 20%; second midterm 20%; final exam
35%.

• Letter grades will be assigned “on a curve”: after the final numerical grades are calculated,
students in the top half of the class will receive “A”s and “A-“s.

Canvas Website
The course website is at https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/61160 Lecture notes, weekly
problem sets, course announcements, sections schedules, your scores, and other useful
information will be posted there. Please refer all questions related to the website to Shangda Xu
xus@college.harvard.edu

Textbook
The textbook for the course is Austan Goolsbee, Steven Levitt, and Chad Syverson
“Microeconomics”, 2nd Edition; Worth Publishers, 2016. You need to buy or rent a copy. Some
available options are suggested on the website.

Lectures and Lecture Notes

Lecture attendance is required. Your participation in class will be measured using iClicker software
and will contribute to your final grade, see details below under “Classroom Quizzes”.

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 Lecture notes will be normally posted on the website by 7 pm the day before the lecture. Lecture
notes cover all material required at the exams (that is beyond introductory microeconomics).
Some of the material is indicated as “supplementary”: studying this material will substantially
increase your understanding of microeconomics, but it will not be required at the exams.

Sections
Weekly sections review current course material corresponding to the weekly problem set by
working through problems and examples. Attendance is strongly recommended.

You will be randomly assigned to a section and the section leader will grade your weekly LPs (see
Weekly Long Problems below). However, you can attend any section you want that matches your
schedule or other priorities.

Each week there will be over 20 sections spread over different hours from Tuesday through Friday.
The sections are run by 14 section leaders. The website offers information about them to help you
make a better choice.

We expect the sections schedule to be posted on the website on 9/9. Please refer all questions
related to sections to Stephanie Cheng at stephaniecheng@g.harvard.edu

Office Hours
Section leaders and I will hold weekly office hours. The schedule of office hours will be posted on
the website. Please use these resources proactively throughout the semester – and not just after
major difficulties arise.

Questions concerning weekly problem sets and midterms should first be taken up with section
leaders. But feel free to contact me if any of these issues are then left unresolved.

My office hours are on Wednesdays, 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm at Littauer 233. The main purpose is to
help students with lecture material. And you are also welcome to come up with questions
concerning applications of microeconomics to world events or in fact any economic topic, even
loosely connected to 1010a.

Classroom Quizzes (CRQs)

A couple times a week during lectures I will be offering classroom quizzes. Some guest lectures will
run CRQs, too. Each quiz will have up to three multiple choice questions related to material
covered in the lecture.

CRQs will be used to measure participation in class. The content of your answers to CRQs will not
be used in any part of the course evaluation. To determine CRQ contribution to your final score we
will calculate your overall participation rate – the percent of answered questions throughout the
course. Any rate above 75% will count as a score of 100/100; rates below 75% will be scaled to
[0,100] interval.

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 CRQs will be administered with iClicker software that allows you to respond in real time to
questions on the classroom screen using your web-connected device (smartphone, tablet, or
laptop). You will have to rent the software for the semester. iClicker installation instructions and
rental options are on the enrollment to do list on the website. Please address any questions about
iClicker to Shangda Xu xus@college.harvard.edu

Important Note: Answering CRQs while not in class, or answering for another student, will be
treated as an honor code violation.

Weekly Multiple-Choice Quizzes (MCQs)

Weekly MCQs, with 10 questions each, provide diagnostics of your overall understanding of the
course material. As you answer the quiz questions, it is fine to consult lectures notes, the textbook,
or anything else that might be helpful. However, you are expected to work on the quizzes by
yourself, as noted below in “Course Policies”

Weekly MCQs will be available on the course webpage from Saturday, at 12:01 am. You may start
the MCQ at any time before 9:59 pm the following Saturday; once you begin it, you will have 2
hours to complete it. The weekly MCQs are graded automatically, and your scores will appear on
the website next week. Brief solutions to MCQs will be published on the course website the week
after submission.

Weekly Long Problems (LPs)

Weekly LPs are crucial to learning how to work with microeconomic models. Besides, solving LPs is
the best training for midterms and the final exam, as these are weighted towards similar problems.
(Although this is not required, please keep in mind that graders would appreciate if you use a word
processor to prepare your written solution; drawing graphs by hand is fine.)

Each LP will be available on the course website from Saturday, at 12:01 am. You should prepare
your written solution as .pdf or .doc or .docx file. The deadline to complete uploading the file to
the course website is the following Saturday, at 11:59 pm. Attention: we strongly recommend
that you start uploading your solution at least a couple of hours in advance of the deadline. We
will be unsympathetic to claims like “I could not complete the upload before the deadline because
my connection (or the server) was slow”. If you experience difficulties uploading your work, please
contact Shangda Xu xus@college.harvard.edu or Stephanie Cheng stephaniecheng@g.harvard.edu.

To promote exchange of ideas and discussions, you can consult with your classmates on weekly
LPs, but this collaboration should be limited to groups of no more than four students, and each
student should not participate in more than one group. After discussions with peers, make sure
that you write up the solution entirely on your own. Remember: if you do not learn how to solve
LPs on your own, you face huge risk at midterms and the final exam. If you have collaborated on an
LP, your solution must list the names of all students with whom you have worked together.

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 LPs will be scored on “check-/check/check+” basis, coded on Canvas “1/2/3” respectively, while “0”
means your work has not been submitted or is completely unsatisfactory. Your LP score and your
grader’s comments will be posted within 7 days after submission deadline. Please do not hesitate
to contact your grader by email or at their office hours with questions about your solution or
requesting additional comments: the main purpose of grading is to provide you with useful
feedback. Solutions to LPs will be published on the course website the week after submission.

Final MCQ/LP Scores

To calculate your final MCQ score, we will throw out your two lowest weekly scores and take the
average of the remaining six. The same procedure will be used for the final LP score calculation.
Attention: this policy means we will not grant extensions for any missed MCQs or LPs, whatever
the reason. The best strategy is to do all of them during the course. If something unexpected
prevents you from doing one or two, your final score will not be penalized.

Missed Midterms
Midterms are NOT optional; you MUST take both. If you miss one midterm without a legitimate
reason, you will get zero grade contribution to your final grade. If you miss two midterms without a
legitimate reason, you will not be admitted to the final exam and will have to take the course again.

If you cannot make a midterm because of a legitimate reason (e.g. you are on a Harvard sports
team and have a conflict, or because you are taking part in an out-of-town activity organized by
Harvard, etc.) you must bring a note from your Resident Dean or Freshman Dean certifying your
legitimate reason. This note must be delivered in person to Stephanie Cheng at least 24 hours
before the midterm. If you had a medical or other emergency, you must deliver the note within 7
days after the midterm. We will then add the weight of the missed midterm to the final exam.

Course Policies
The final exam, the midterms, the weekly MCQs and the CRQs should be completely your own
work. Answering CRQs while not in class, or answering for another student, will be treated as an
honor code violation. Please consult the “Weekly long problem” section above on the rules for
collaboration when preparing your weekly LPs.

You are requested not to use your laptops, smartphones, tablets etc. when attending lectures
except when responding to CRQs. If you absolutely must have an open screen during a lecture,
please make sure that you sit on the outer left and right sections of the classroom, not center.

Calculators are permitted for weekly problem sets and during sections. But no calculators are
allowed at midterms and the final exam. However, at the exams you may leave numerical
𝟐𝟎.𝟐𝟓
expressions unresolved in your final answers, e.g. 𝑸 = 𝒍𝒏(𝟑).

Boycko Econ 1010a Syllabus Page 5 of 9

Getting Help
1010a has many students so please be proactive to get help. But there are plenty of resources
available.

With course material, the best place to find help are lectures, sections, and office hours. Please
don’t hesitate to ask questions in class or come up to me after the lecture if you want to clarify
anything or have comments to share. My OH are primarily for questions about course material.
But at sections and other OHs TAs are available to answer all these questions, too. And feel free to
email TAs or me with any question about the material, too!

The course website has – or should have! – reasonably complete information about the course.

If you have a question or a request that the website does not cover, your first port of call should be
two Co-Head TAs, Stephanie Cheng stephaniecheng@g.harvard.edu and Shangda Xu
xus@college.harvard.edu

• Shangda will help students with matters related to weekly problem sets, CRQs and iClicker,
exam materials, website operation, etc.
• Please address any questions regarding schedules, logistics, and course administration to
Stephanie.

Section leaders will help with questions related to solutions of weekly MCQs and LPs. If you have
questions related to grading of your own solution of a weekly LP, don’t hesitate to contact your
grader directly by email or at their OH.

Links to external resources, including peer tutors, are on the website.

Good luck with 1010a!

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Course Outline and Textbook Readings

1. Lecture 1 (L01) provides an introduction to microeconomics and to the course (the

corresponding textbook reading is Chapter 1).
2. L02 covers applications of the supply and demand model (Chapters 2-3) to several advanced
topics (Chapter 15.1).
3. L03—L06 delve into production, costs, firm behavior, and market supply (Chapters 6-8).
4. L07—L09 turn to consumer behavior and market demand (Chapters 4-5).
5. L10—L11 provide you with a taste of general equilibrium theory (Chapter 15).
6. L12—L13 cover models of resource allocation over time and under uncertainty (Chapter 14).
7. L14—L15 explore markets in the presence of externalities and public goods (Chapter 17).
8. L16—L21 introduce market power, price discrimination, imperfect competition, and game
theory to provide a set of more realistic models of many actual markets (Chapters 9-12)
9. L22—L23 explore how markets work when information is asymmetric between buyers and
sellers (Chapter 16).
10. L24—L25 turn to labor markets, where both models of perfect and imperfect competition
provide important insights (Chapter 9).
11. Finally, L26 introduces behavioral economics, when economic actors are less than fully
rational in their decisions. (Chapter 18).

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Course Staff

Instructor:
Maxim Boycko mb1010a@gmail.com
Section Leaders:
Apostolicas, Paul paul_apostolicas@college.harvard.edu
Berger, Jonah jonahberger@college.harvard.edu
Catania, Vanessa vcatania@college.harvard.edu
Cheng, Stephanie (co-head TA) stephaniecheng@g.harvard.edu
Esrig, Caleb cesrig@college.harvard.edu
Green, Alexander alexander_green@college.harvard.edu
Kelser, Chris ckelser@college.harvard.edu
Lore-Edwards, Nick nlore-edwards@college.harvard.edu
Paffenholz, David paffenholz@college.harvard.edu
Thömmes, Vivien vivien_thommes@college.harvard.edu
Xu, Shangda (co-head TA) xus@college.harvard.edu
Wagner, Myles mnwagner@g.harvard.edu
Wang, Jeffrey jeffrey_wang@g.harvard.edu
Zhang, Alicia aliciazhang@college.harvard.edu

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 Economics 1010a Calendar 2019
Lectures / Exams / Holidays Sections/OH Problem Sets
4-Sep W L01 Introduction S&D Review
6-Sep F L02 Supply and Demand Math Review PS1 out
9-Sep M L03 Production
S1: Supply and
11-Sep W L04 Cost Minimization Demand
13-Sep F L05 Cost Curves PS2 out PS1 due
16-Sep M L06 Market Supply
S2: Production, Costs
18-Sep W L07 Consumer Choice: Setting the Problem
and Market Supply
20-Sep F L08 Consumer Choice: Solving the Problem PS3 out PS2 due
23-Sep M L09 Consumer Demand
S3: Consumer Choice
25-Sep W L10 General Equilibrium and Demand
27-Sep F L11 General Equilibrium, cont'd PS4 out PS3 due
30-Sep M L12 Time and Investment S4: General
2-Oct W L13 Uncertainty, Risk and Insurance Equilibrium; Time and
4-Oct F G1 Guest lecture: Prof. Pol Antras Uncertainty PS4 due
7-Oct M R1 Review Session
SM1 Midterm 1
9-Oct W M1 Midterm 1, covers L02-L13 Review
11-Oct F G2 Guest lecture: Prof. Benjamin Enke
14-Oct M UH Columbus Day
16-Oct W L14 Externalities
18-Oct F L15 Externalities, cont'd; Public Goods PS5 out
21-Oct M L16 Market Power
S5: Externalities;
23-Oct W L17 Market Power, cont'd; Price Discrimination Public Goods
25-Oct F L18 Price Discrimination, Cont'd PS6 out PS5 due
28-Oct M L19 Imperfect Competition
S6: Market Power;
30-Oct W L20 Imperfect Competition, Cont'd; Game Theory 1
Price Discrimination
1-Nov F L21 Game Theory, cont'd PS7 out PS6 due
4-Nov M L22 Asymmetric Information 1 S7: Imperfect
6-Nov W L23 Asymmetric Information 2 Competition; Game
8-Nov F G3 TBD Theory PS8 out PS7 due
11-Nov M L24 Labor Markets 1
S8: Asymmetric
13-Nov W L25 Labor Markets 2
Information
15-Nov F G4 Guest lecture: Prof. Oliver Hart PS8 due
18-Nov M R2 Review Session
SM2 Midterm 2
20-Nov W M2 Midterm 2, covers L14-L23 Review
22-Nov F G5 Guest lecture: Prof. Larry Summers
25-Nov M G6 Guest lecture: Prof. Melissa Dell
27-Nov W UH Thanksgiving
29-Nov F UH Thanksgiving
2-Dec M L26 Behavioral Economics Final Exam Review
TBD RF Final Review Session
TBD F Final Exam

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