Instructor: Robin D. Hanson, Assoc. Professor, Economics (rhanson@gmu.edu, http://robinhanson.com)
Office Hours: Tuesday 5-7pm, at Arlington office, Truland Building 226. (If the Truland 2nd floor door is locked, call my cell 703-201-8129.) Other days and times I'm usually in Fairfax, at Carow Hall Room 10A, 703-993-2326.
Catalog Entry:

612 Microeconomic Theory (3:3:0). Credits: 3 Nature of the firm; theory of supply; and production functions, factor pricing, and supplies. Introduces microeconomic foundations of theories of public finance and public choice. Prerequisites: ECON 611.

Robert S. Pindyck and Daniel L. Rubinfeld, Microeconomics, 7th Edition, Prentice Hall, 2009, ISBN 0132080230.

Andreu Mas-Colell, Michael D. Whinston and Jerry R. Green, Microeconomic Theory, Oxford University Press, 1995, ISBN 0195073401.

• Class Participation 5% of grade. Please join in class discussions.
• Homework 15% of grade. Assigned weekly, due the next week when solutions are handed out. (No credit for late work.) A random third of weeks are collected and graded. A mixture of problem sets and short papers.
• Midterm Exam 20% of grade.
• Final Exam 35% of grade. All exams are in class, open book/notes.
• Big Change Paper 25% of grade. Due May 1. Imagine a single big change to our economy, and then use microeconomics to describe the consequences of that change, including whether those changes are good or bad. You might, for example, imagine how things would be changed if people became immortal, if Star Trek style "transporters" were availalble, if very reliable lie detectors were available, or if no one needed sleep. I gradepapers by counting the number of what I consider valid and relevant points (weak points count half).