Students

Economics for Engineers – Fall 2013

ECON 204

Faculty Contact Information

            Instructor                : Arif Orçun SÖYLEMEZ

            Office                       : Marmara University, Goztepe Campus, Economic Faculty, Room:514

            Phone                      : (216)

            Office Hours           : F, 17:00 – 18:45pm at Yeditepe Ticari Bilimler Faculty Toplantı Salonu

                                               or by appointment.

            e mail                       : orcun.soylemez@marmara.edu.tr

            URL                        : econinternational.blogspot.com

Course Description

            Course                       :  Economics for Engineers (ECON 204)

            Reading Material     :  (1) Managerial Economics: A Problem Solving Approach, by Nick        Wilkenson, Cambridge University Press, 2005.

                                                  (2) Economics, by Michael Parkin, Pearson, 11^th or 10^th Ed.

                                                  (3) Lecture Notes and Presentations

                                                  (4) Journal Articles

                                            

            Course Objectives : Understand the essentials of economics. Become knowledgeable in Microeconomic thinking and gain familiarity to main Macroeconomic issues and indicators. After studying this course, students should be able to define what an economic question is, have theoretical understanding on the consumer and firm theories, know different market types, identify the gains from trade, be literate on macroeconomic and financial markets.

Specific Course Requirements and Policies

            Assignments

·         Students are expected to spend approximately 1,5 hours in preparation for each hour of lecture.

·         Students are responsible for all in-class or on-line announcements that may or may not be included in the syllabus.   

·         In order to complete course requirements, each student has to take a midterm and a final examination. Unless otherwise is announced in class, all examinations will be in multiple choice and problem set format.

·         For written assignments, students should use a computer to print out their homework. In case a student does not have access to a computer he/she should use necessary office equipments (ruler, pen, etc.) to draw diagrams and graphs clearly on a plain A4 size paper.

·         If assignment requires mathematical calculations, each calculation has to be elaborated. Student should show how the answer was reached.

·         No late homework will be accepted and there will be no make ups for missed assignments (quiz or homework). Student will receive a grade zero for any missed assignment.  

·         Occasionally, announced or unannounced quizzes will be given.

            Class Attendance

·         Class attendance is compulsory since attendance is an integral part of success in this course. Regular and punctual attendance at all scheduled classes is therefore strongly expected and recommended. Yeditepe University reserves the right to deal at any time with individual cases on nonattendance.

·         Effects of absences on grades will be discussed under Grading System section.

·         In case of an illness that will require an absence from class for more than one week, the student should notify his or her academic dean. The dean’s office will inform the student’s instructors through the departmental office. In case of class absences because of a brief illness, the student should inform the instructor directly.

·         Any student absent because of a university approved reason will be allowed to make up missed work within 1 weeks following the absence.

           

            Grading System

Ø  Homework + Quiz + Attendance Averages                20 % 

Ø  Mid Term I                                                                35 %                         

Ø  Final Exam (Comprehensive)                                      45 %

                                                                                     100 %

·         Depending on students’ performance on a mid term exam or final exam the instructor reserves the right to assign any amount of curve which would apply to every student who takes the test on its scheduled time and place.

·         Under no circumstances will a student be allowed to do any additional work to improve his/her grade.

Academic Integrity

            Academic Misconduct

·         Cheating: “Dishonesty on examinations and quizzes or on written assignments, illegal possession of examinations*, the use of unauthorized notes during an examination or quiz, obtaining information during an examination from the examination paper or otherwise from another student, assisting others to cheat, alteration of grade records, illegal entry to or unauthorized presence in an office are instances of cheating.”

·         Plagiarism: “Offering the work of another as one’s own, without proper acknowledgement, is plagiarism; therefore any student who fails to give credit for quotations or an essentially identical expression of material taken from books, encyclopedias, magazines, and other reference works, or from the themes, reports, or other writings of a fellow student, is guilty of plagiarism.”

Civility in the Classroom

·         Students are expected to assist in maintaining a classroom environment which is conducive to learning.  In order to assure that all students have an opportunity to gain from time spent in class, unless otherwise approved by the instructor, students are prohibited from using cellular phones or beepers, eating or drinking in class, making offensive remarks, reading newspapers, sleeping or engaging in any other form of distraction.  Inappropriate behavior in the classroom shall result in, minimally, a request to leave class.

·         Students are expected to have their ID’s with them in class.  The instructor reserves the right to ask a student to show his/her ID, especially during exams.

Tentative Course Schedule

SUBJECT	CHAPTERS
Economic Way of Thinking: knowing the economic agents, their objectives, the economic question of optimization under constraints. Case Study: Zara vs M&S Important concepts of the chapter: economic agent, objective, constraint, rationality	Presentations, Hand-outs, Journal Articles will be given
The Firm Theory: profit maximization objective, newer theories of firm (motivations theory, agency theory).  Constraints of firms (technological constrainsts, informational constraints, market constraints). Important concepts of the chapter: implicit rental rate of capital, accounting profit vs economic profit, depreciation, technological efficiency, economic efficiency
Output and Cost: long-run and short-run decisions of firms, labor – output relations in the short-run. Total/Marginal/Average product in the short-run. Output – cost relations in the short-run. Total/Marginal/Average cost in the short-run. Long-run Average cost and envelope curve. Economies and diseconomies of scale. Minimum efficient scale. Important concepts of the chapter: Long-run vs. Short-run. Economies of scale. Minimum efficient scale. Cost and output curves.
Perfect Competition: prerequisites of perfect competition. Deriving the demand and supply. Market equilibrium. Output decisions, marginal analysis, shut-down condition. Efficiency gains from competition. Important concepts of the chapter: Output, price and profit in the short and long-runs. Efficiency of competition.
Market Types: Monopoly, Oligopoly. Rents and mark-ups. Deadweight losses. Profit maximization condition, Marginal revenue and Marginal cost. Important concepts of the chapter: price differentiation, monopolistic rent, contestable markets, quantity and price competitions.
MIDTERM
Efficiency and Fairness of Markets, Government Actions on Markets, Externalities, Trade Important concepts of the chapter: Efficiency vs. Equity, social costs, market failures, gains from trade.
Consumer Theory: Utility, Demand and Supply (revisited), budget constraint. Important concepts of the chapter: indifference curves, Utility function, monotonicity.
GUIDES methodology: GDP, Unemployment, Inflation, Debt, Expenditures, Savings
International Financial Issues in Turkish Economy
Monetary Policy and Fiscal Policies
FINAL EXAMINATION