Applied Economics

Grade 12
robertdigay@gmail.com / rrdigay@up.edu.ph

SYLLABUS

I. Economics as a Social Science and as an Applied Science

Assigned Reading:
Mankiw, Gregory. Economics Principles. Ten Principles of Economics.

Suggested Reading:
Levitt, S. and S. Dubner. Freakonomics. Ch. 1.

II. The Utility and Application of Applied Economics

● Slopes and Budget Constraints

Assigned Reading:
Mankiw, Gregory. Economics Principles. Thinking Like an Economist.

Suggested Reading:
Hardin, Garrett. Tragedy of the Commons. Science 162: 1243-1248

III. Market schedule

● Market Demand
● Market Supply
● Market Equilibrium

Assigned Readings:
Mankiw, Gregory. Economics Principles. Interdependence and Gains from Trade.
Mankiw, Gregory. Economics Principles. The Market Forces of Supply and Demand.

Suggested Reading:
Read, Leonard. I, Pencil. The Freeman (1958)

FIRST EXAMINATION

IV. Market Pricing

Assigned Readings:
Mankiw, Gregory. Economics Principles. Elasticity and its Application.
Mankiw, Gregory. Economics Principles. The Monetary System.

Suggested Reading:
Varian, Hal. Price Discrimination. University of Michigan.

V. Market Structures
Assigned Readings:
Mankiw, Gregory. Economics Principles. Firms in Competitive Markets.
Mankiw, Gregory. Economics Principles. Monopoly.
Mankiw, Gregory. Economics Principles. Monopolistic Competition.
Mankiw, Gregory. Economics Principles. Oligopoly.
 Fabella, Raul. CARP: Time to Let Go. Philippine Review of Economics.

VI. Contemporary economic issues

● 2008 Housing Bubble

● COVID-19 Recession
● Asian Crisis of 1997
● Greek Government Debt Crisis of the 2010s
● Dot-com Bubble

SECOND EXAMINATION

VII. Principles in participation in an industry

Assigned Readings:
Mankiw, Gregory. Economics Principles. Theory of Consumer Choice
Mankiw, Gregory. Economics Principles. Frontiers of Microeconomics.

Suggested Reading:
Cowen, Tyler. Enter the Neuro-Economists: Why Do Investors Do What They Do? Economic Scene. Accessed:
https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/20/business/enter-the-neuroeconomists-why-do-investors-do-what-they-do.html

VIII. Socio-economic factors affecting business and industry

Assigned Readings:
Samuelson, Paul., Nordhaus, William. Economics. How Markets Determine Incomes.
Samuelson, Paul., Nordhaus, William. Economics. The Labor Market.
Samuelson, Paul., Nordhaus, William. Economics. Land, Natural Resources, and the Environment.
Samuelson, Paul., Nordhaus, William. Economics. Capital, Interest, and Profits.
Samuelson, Paul., Nordhaus, William. Economics. Government Taxation and Expenditure.
Samuelson, Paul., Nordhaus, William. Economics. Efficiency v. Equality: The Big Tradeoff
Samuelson, Paul., Nordhaus, William. Economics. Unemployment and the Foundations of Aggregate Supply.
Samuelson, Paul., Nordhaus, William. Economics. Inflation

Suggested Reading:
Nafziger, Wayne. From Seers to Sen: The Meaning of Economic Development. World Institute for Development
Economics Research.

IX. Evaluate the viability and impact of business on the community.

FINAL EXAMINATION

Class rules:
Every student is expected to read the required text and should be prepared for an oral recitation during online classes.
Each one may be called randomly and multiple times for each class. Attendance would be strictly checked but those with
sufficient reasons may be excused. The syllabus may be amended during the semester.

Asynchronous activities should be individually made unless the instructions would expressly allow cooperation. A student
may be called upon to explain his or her paper. For essays and other papers, please properly cite your sources.
The class will assign a beadle. I will be coordinating mostly with the class beadle with instructions. The class may also
relay their collective concerns through the beadle. If a student has any concern or in need of assistance, he or she may
contact me directly.

The class will be divided into groups for the purposes of discussion and certain activities which would involve multiple
students.

A student with perfect attendance may be given extra credit.

Additional Suggested Readings

Easterly, William. The White Man’s Burden. New York: Penguin Books
Levit, Steven, and Dubner, Stephen. Freakonomics. New York: William Morrow-HarperCollins.

END.