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University of Alberta Alberta School of Business
Department of Marketing, Business Economics and Law
Course Syllabus
BUEC 311 B2– Business Economics, Organizations, and Management Winter 2012
(T R 9:30-10:50 at HC L3)
Instructor: Runjuan Liu
Office: 3-21C Business Building Phone: (780) 492-0334
Email: [email protected] (please indicate in the subject line “BUEC 311”) Office Hours: Tuesday 11:00-12:00 and Thursday 11:00-12:00
Prerequisites: ECON 101, 102, and MATH 113 or equivalent. Students may receive credit for only one of BUEC 301, BUEC 311, MANEC 301 or ECON 383. Not open to students with previous credit in ECON 281.
Course Web: This course will use the Ulearn system (https://ulearn.ualberta.ca/webapps/login/).
All registered students should have access to the course page. Class announcements and materials will be posted on the Ulearn. It is very important to check the Ulearn regularly for updated class information.
Required Readings: Robert S. Pindyck and Daniel L. Rubinfeld, Microeconomics (7th edition) (available in UA bookstore) and lecture notes (posted on the Ulearn).
Course Objectives and Structure:
Underlying economic forces often drive decision-making in business organizations. This course aims to provide students with a systematic understanding of the fundamental microeconomic principles that influence business decisions and behavior, and thus equip students to exploit the opportunities and cope with the challenges that are associated with the changing economy. The course will be divided into three sections.
Part 1 – Consumers, Producers and Competitive Markets This section of the course will introduce the fundamental frameworks used for understanding the competitive markets. Specifically, this section will introduce the analytical tools and concepts used to examine the consumer choices and producer behaviors and how they interact in a competitive market.
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Part 2 – Market Structure and Competitive Strategy This section of the course will focus on how firms make pricing, investment and output decisions under different market structures ranging from monopoly and monopsony to monopolistic competition and oligopoly. This section will also introduce some principles from game theory to analyze how firms respond to the behavior of competitors.
Part 3 – Advanced Topics This section of the course will cover several more advanced topics in Microeconomics, including capital investment, markets for factor inputs, general equilibrium and efficiency.
Grading and requirements:
A student’s overall grade is calculated as follows:
Midterm I: 30%
Midterm II: 30%
Final Exam: 40%
The midterms will be based primarily on the material covered since the previous exam. The final Exam will be comprehensive. If a midterm is missed and the student has an accompanying medical note, the midterm weight will automatically be added to the final exam. If a student should request re-grading of part of an exam, I reserve the right to re-grade the entire exam. All such requests are to be submitted within one week of when the exams are returned.
Grade assignment will be based on the overall grade achieved in the semester. The final grades in the course will be based roughly on the following schedule:
Overall % Grade 95%‐100% A+
90%‐100% A 85%‐89% A- 80%‐84% B+
70%‐79% B 60%‐69% B- 50%‐59% C+
The Code of Student Behavior:
The University of Alberta is committed to the highest standards of academic integrity and honesty. Students are expected to be familiar with these standards regarding academic honesty and to uphold the policies of the University in this respect. Students are particularly urged to familiarize themselves with the provisions of the Code of Student Behavior (http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/gfcpolicymanual/content.cfm?ID_page=37633) and avoid any behavior which could potentially result in suspicious of cheating, plagiarism, misrepresentation of facts and/or participation in an offence. Academic dishonesty is a serious offence and can result in suspension or expulsion from the University.
3 Tentative Course Outline:
Week starting Topic Required Textbook Readings
Jan 9 Course overview/Introduction Chapter 1-2 Part 1 – Consumers, Producers and Competitive Markets
Jan 16 Consumer Choice Chapter 3-5
Jan 23 Consumer Choice Chapter 3-5
Jan 30 Producer Behavior Chapter 6-7
Feb 6 Producer Behavior Chapter 6-7
Feb 13 Perfect Competition Chapter 8-9
Feb 20 READING WEEK (no classes) Feb 28 Midterm I
Part 2 – Market Structure and Competitive Strategy
Feb 27 Market Power Chapter 10-11
Mar 5 Market Power/ Monopolistic Competition Chapter 10-11 Mar 12 Monopolistic Competition and Oligopoly Chapter 12
Mar 19 Competitive Strategy Chapter 13
Mar 27 Midterm II Part 3 – Advanced Topics
Mar 26 Market for Factor Inputs Chapter 14
Apr 2 Capital Investment Chapter 15
Apr 9 General Equilibrium and Efficiency Chapter 16
April Final Exam
Notes: The course outline may be adjusted due to certain circumstances. Any change will be announced in class and Ulearn in advance.
