E-mail: khorassj@marietta.edu

Econ 211 (principles of microeconomics) & Econ 212 (principles of macroeconomics).

Should education be publicly provided? Should the budget surplus be returned to the public? Should social security be privatized? Should government tighten environmental regulations? Should the progressive income tax system be replaced with a flat tax system? Should elected officials' terms be limited? Should regulations regarding the means to finance campaign expenditures be reformed? Should a universal health insurance program be put in place?

This course will not give you the answers to the above questions. What this course does instead, is to give you the economic tools that can be used to analyze each of the above questions. Upon completion of this course, you will have a better understanding of economic justifications for various policies as well as their economic consequences. Broadly speaking, our goal is to examine the role and extent of government in a modern mixed economy.

Our main means of communication is the classroom. You are expected to attend classes on a regular basis and take notes on the upcoming assignments and their due dates. In addition, I may also communicate new information to you via my web page/email/voice mail/and campus mail when necessary. Similarly, please feel free to visit me in my office, call my office or my home, fax me, or e-mail me to discuss your concerns and questions. I have also made it possible for you to send me your comments anonymously via my web page.

Attendance in this class is not mandatory. However, if you miss a class in which an in-class assignment is given, you will not be given a chance to turn in that assignment later. This holds regardless of the nature of your excuse for missing the class. Moreover, it is your responsibility to contact me or one of your classmates immediately after you miss a class to find out about the new out-of-class assignment and everything else you have missed.

1. Economics of The Public Sector (3^rd edition, 2000) by Joseph Stiglitz

2. The Wall Street Journal

The following table shows the weight of different assignments in your final grade.

The students will be evaluated as follows:

You are responsible to keep track of the points you have earned throughout this semester. To help you out with this task, I will regularly post your points on my web page. To maintain your privacy, your points are going to be listed according to a secret code of your choice rather than your names.

You will be given three exams according to the following schedule. All exams are comprehensive. That is, they cover everything up to the end of the last class before an exam. Exams will be multiple choice, analytical, and essay in nature. You may use in-class assignments, out-of-class assignments, examples given in class, and textbook problems as a guide to the types of questions that will appear on exams.

Make-up exams will not be offered. Students unable to take an exam for reasons of illness, personal emergency, participation in sports, or other college related commitments will have to contact me before the test and provide proof of the problem as soon as possible. Given your excused absence from exam 1, the weight of the second exam will be raised to 35%. Similarly, for those who miss the second exam, the weight of the third exam will be 50%. Students without an excused absence will receive a zero on the missed exam.

1. Study Assignment: At the end of each class you will receive a study assignment (over and beyond a reading assignment). When you come to the next class, I assume that you are ready to discuss and/or answer simple questions regarding the study assignment. The goal of some of the in-class-assignments will simply be to test whether or not you have studied the assigned material.

2. Out-Of-Class Assignments: You will frequently be given out-of-class assignments consisting of numerical and analytical questions. I will collect and grade these assignments, both for content and the disposition of the content. Unless otherwise indicated in class, all out-of-class assignments must be typed. Depending on their length and degree of difficulty, these assignments may be due in two days to one week. You may work on these assignments in groups, but each student must write up his/her assignment separately (That is, no photocopies or duplicate papers are accepted.) Occasionally, however, you will be allowed to turn in one assignment for the entire group. A penalty of 5 points will be imposed on those who turn in their assignments one day pass the due date. No assignments will be accepted beyond the day after the due date.

3. In-Class Assignments: During this semester I will frequently require you to take five to ten minutes to complete a short writing assignment or exercise in class. I will either collect and grade these assignments or have you discuss them in class. Notice that missing a class automatically results in missing the opportunity to turn in an in-class assignment.

4. Journal Article: Some of you are aware that I am the editor of a newsletter called "MACRO & micro". This newsletter, which is the result of the collaboration between our department and the Economic Roundtable of the Ohio Valley, is published 6-7 times during the year and is mailed to all the members of the Economic Roundtable and a few other interested entities. One of the goals of this newsletter is to give our students the opportunity to publish their short economic articles.

To this end, I am requiring you to write a short article (2-4 pages, double line space, in times new roman font size 12) focusing on the economic analysis of a current public economic issue of your choice. You are, however, required to have your topic approved by me before you start working on the article. You may turn in the first draft of the article any time before November 10^th. If the first draft is not acceptable, you will then have to revise it and resubmit it. The process of revision and resubmission will continue until either your article become acceptable or we reach the deadline of November 10^th. To encourage you to submit your paper early, however, for every day prior to November 10th that you submit the final (acceptable) version of your paper I will give you 1 bonus point on the paper. If, for example, you submit the final version of your paper on November 1st, you will earn 9 bonus points on your paper. Most accepted papers will be published in MACRO & micro

5. Bonus Assignments: Throughout this semester, you will receive a few bonus assignments. These assignments will give you a chance to make up for missed and/or poor assignments.

Academic dishonesty is a breach of the trust that the instructor and your fellow classmates place in you and will not be tolerated.

 Have A Disability?

If there is a student in this class with a documented disability, please see me immediately to discuss necessary accommodations.

Our plan is to cover the first 25 chapters of the text. For a detailed course outline, which will be updated on a weekly basis, refer to my web page.