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SMA
536 Tentative Class Schedule and
Announcements
Week 1 (beginning 9/29)
Monday: Introduction to class; Chapter 1
Wednesday: Chapter 2
Week 2 (beginning 10/6)
Monday: Chapter 3
Wednesday: Chapter 4. Here is the paper topic for the 3-5 page writing assignment due December 1st. Note that the Economist article on fish farming is in my mailbox for you to photocopy or otherwise borrow for a limited time.
Week 3 (beginning 10/13)
Monday: Chapter 5
Wednesday: Classroom experiments to introduce game theory. Part I exam handed out at end of class. Click here for cheat sheet and click here for the answer key to end-of-chapter problems. If desired, we can spend part of this class period going over Part I topics, problems, etc.
Week 4 (beginning 10/20)
Monday: Chapter 6. Part I exam due at beginning of class. Answer key to Part I exam.
Wednesday: Chapter 7
Week 5 (beginning 10/27)
Monday: Chapters 7 and 8
Wednesday: Chapter 8
Week 6 (beginning 11/3)
Monday: Chapter 9
Tuesday: Election Day!
Wednesday: Chapter 10
Week 7 (beginning 11/10)
Monday: Chapter 11.
Wednesday: Chapter 12. Part II exam handed out at end of class. Click here for cheat sheet and click here for the answer key to end-of-chapter problems. If desired, we can spend part of this class period going over Part II topics, problems, etc.
Week 8 (beginning 11/17)
Monday: Chapter 13. Classroom experiments to introduce competitive markets. Part II exam due at beginning of class. Answer key to Part II exam.
Wednesday: Chapter 14.
Week 9 (beginning 11/24)
Monday: Chapter 15
Wednesday: Chapters 16 and 17
Week 10 (beginning 12/1)
Monday: Chapters 17 and 18.
Wednesday: TBD. Class paper due at beginning of class. Part III exam handed out at end of class. Click here for cheat sheet and click here for the answer key to end-of-chapter problems. If desired, we can spend part of this class period going over Part III topics, problems, etc.
Week 11 (beginning 12/8)
Monday: TBD. Part III exam due at beginning of class. Answer key to Part III exam
Wednesday: TBD. Optional final exam handed out at end of class. Click here for cheat sheet. The final is due 12/13, but if you’re leaving town early you can put it in my box when you’re done. (You can also mail it to me—anything as long as it gets to me by 12/13.)
The optional final exam will be cumulative. Potential topics include individual decision-making (sunk costs, expected value calculations, present value calculations, fish-are-capital type questions), game theory (sequential move games and game trees, simultaneous move games and payoff matrices, cake-cutting games, finitely repeated games, dominant strategies, iterated strict dominance, Pareto efficiency, Pareto inefficiency, Pareto improvement, auctions), price theory (the theory of supply and demand, shifts in supply and demand, taxes and tax burdens, elasticities of supply and demand), and some questions involving the role of government (e.g.: Why are price controls inefficient? Does eliminating a price control constitute a Pareto improvement?).