A Microeconomic Theory Workbook

Introduction

Welcome! This is a companion workbook to my flipped Intermediate Microeconomics course, taught at the University of Arkansas in Fall 2024.

This workbook follows Hal Varian’s Intermediate Microeconomics (8th edition).

Objective

In this course, you’ll delve into the major themes of microeconomic theory by deriving them yourself from the ground up. With a flipped class format, you’ll first engage with new concepts through readings, videos, and practice questions. Then, during class, you’ll work on challenging problems in small groups within a collaborative and dynamic learning environment. My teaching philosophy is that true understanding and excitement come from active engagement, not passive listening. By introducing terminology through pre-class materials, you’ll be well-prepared to explore and derive the fascinating aspects of microeconomics in real time with your peers. This method ensures that you deeply grasp and remember the material, eliminating the need for memorization because you’ll know how to derive everything on your own.

Course Policies

Grades

Here’s the grade breakdown for reference:

Pct of Total	Category
10%	Participation (groupmate evals)
30%	Classwork
10%	Quizzes (dropping lowest)
50%	Exams (dropping lowest)

At the end of the quarter, I’ll take your final grade, round to the nearest integer, then apply this:

Letter	Points
A	90 or above
B	80-89
C	70-79
D	60-69
F	less than 60

Participation (10%)

Attendance is crucial in a flipped class like this, so while I understand that life happens, please note that absences will impact your grade. If you anticipate needing to be absent for a significant portion of this course, this class will definitely not be a good fit for you. Exceptions of course include absences because of religious observances.

This is the way that absences impact your grade: at the end of each exam, you’ll rate your groupmates’ participation. For each groupmate, you will answer these three questions:

1. How often did your groupmate attend classes since you’ve been grouped together?

   1. They attended all classes.

   2. They missed one or two classes but informed us and compensated for their absences by either contributing remotely or taking on extra responsibility later.

   3. They missed one or two classes and did not adequately compensate for those absences.

   4. They missed three or more classes.

2. How often was your groupmate prepared for class?

   1. Always: They consistently demonstrated that they had thoroughly and thoughtfully completed the homework and were ready to contribute meaningfully.

   2. Often: They seemed ready about 75% of the time.

   3. Sometimes: They appeared ready roughly 50% of the time.

   4. Rarely or never: They mostly seemed unprepared to make any meaningful contributions, or they missed a significant number of classes.

3. What was your experience like working with your groupmate?

   1. Always pleasant: My groupmate was always engaged, open-minded, cooperative, and receptive to different points of view.

   2. Usually pleasant: My groupmate had a few lapses in engagement or cooperation, but overall it was a positive working experience.

   3. Sometimes pleasant: We had occasional challenges and it was a neutral overall experience.

   4. Difficult to work with: Frequent absences or multiple instances of dismissive, condescending, or disrespectful behavior. (If you witness such behavior, please inform me immediately!)

Each a) you receive counts as 3 points, each b) is 2 points, each c) is 1 point, and each d) is 0 points. I’ll take the median of your score from all your groupmates and that will determine your participation grade, which counts for 10% of your final grade. I will only post participation scores after week 7 (after shuffling groups into the final group set), and then also after week 10 (at the end of the course).

Note: if you are frequently absent, not only will you be making life difficult for your groupmates, but you should also expect to score low on all these questions, which will have the effect of lowering your final grade by up to one letter grade.

Classwork (30%)

Each week, your group will submit one copy of the classwork to Blackboard before the Friday deadline. Please follow these guidelines:

• Typed Answers: Ensure all answers are typed.
• Math Formatting: Use LaTeX for all mathematical content.
• R Code: Compile all R code into either HTML or PDF format.

If you submit any handwritten answers or non-compiled R code, a 50% penalty will be applied to your grade. Late submissions will not be accepted under any circumstances, as the answer key is published at the deadline.

Quizzes (10%)

At the beginning of most weeks, I will quiz you on the previous week’s classwork. Here’s how it will work:

• I will select one classwork question from the previous week (changing numbers if there are numbers in the question).
• You will have 10 minutes to complete the quiz.
• If you are late to class, you will not receive extra time, so please be prompt.
• After 10 minutes, I will use a random number generator to decide how the quizzes will be handled:
  • With a 50% chance, I will collect and grade the quizzes. These grades will affect your grade. At the end of the term, I will drop your lowest quiz score.
  • With a 50% chance, you will pass your quiz to the left within your group. As I go over the problem, your groupmate will grade your quiz and then return it back to you. These grades will not impact your grade.
• There will never be any make-up quizzes given.
• You can prepare for these quizzes by reviewing the classwork answer keys beforehand. Studying for the quizzes will help to prepare you for the exams.

Exams (50%)

The midterms and final exam will be in-person and closed-note. On all of the exams, there will be a multiple-choice section and a short-answer section. There will never be any surprises on the exams: the short-answer sections will be made up of questions drawn directly from the classwork problems. The multiple-choice section will be drawn directly from the workbook practice questions. If I change any questions, the changes will be minimal.

I will not give any make-up exams, but I will automatically drop your lowest exam score when calculating your final grade in the course.

Groups

This is how groups will be assigned:

• Before Midterm 1: Initial group set based on the pre-test.
• Between Midterms 1 and 2: second group set based on midterm scores.
• After Midterm 2: you’ll have the chance to request your groupmates, and I’ll do my best to accomodate as many of these requests as I can.

Note that you’ll be sorted into groups and you’ll keep those groups for a couple of weeks at a time, so you’ll want to prioritize keeping the group atmosphere respectful and harmonious. Disagreements are bound to happen, but it’s never a good idea to put someone down or be dismissive just because you don’t see eye-to-eye. Stay patient, positive, and open-minded and you may even find that you enjoy this style of learning!

Also: if your group is feeling really stuck and can’t figure out a problem, don’t hesitate to ask other groups around you. I’d love to be able to sit down with every group and give you feedback about your ideas, but that won’t always be possible in a large class like this one. I will always be available to chat in office hours however.

Office Hours: MWF at TIME TBA over Zoom

The way I like to do office hours is this: I’ll find a time on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays that works for everyone and I’ll open up Zoom to chat during that time. I don’t love waiting around just to see if anyone will drop in though. So I’ll be available Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at TBA for Zoom office hours, but if nobody drops in in the first few minutes, I will leave. I’ll stay the entire hour if that’s how long it takes to get everyone’s questions answered, but this is not a study hall: you should always come with specific questions prepared.

Email is not Preferred

I’d like to emphasize that if you need to reach me, please use office hours instead of email. Here are a few reasons why:

• Keeping it Personal: I want to get to know you, and face-to-face interactions make this much easier.
• Clarity: Face-to-face interactions help clarify points of confusion and avoid misunderstandings. We can often both learn more during office hours.
• Time: Conversations in office hours usually take much less time than composing emails.
• Limited Email: I go through and answer my emails only once a week. This way, I can stay focused on creating great content for class, grading to provide timely feedback, and advancing my research. If you do email me, please understand that I might not get back to you for a little while. Office hours are a much better way to reach me.