TEXTBOOKS:

Theodore C. Bergstrom and John H. Miller, Experiments with Economic Principles: Microeconomics, 2nd edition, Irwin McGraw-Hill, 2000.

Roger LeRoy Miller, Daniel K. Benjamin, and Douglas C. North, The Economics of Public Issues, 12th edition, Addison Wesley Longman, 2001.

EVALUATION/GRADING:

Grading Ranges:

     A	 = 90.0 - 100%        C + = 75.0 - 77.4%
     A -  = 87.5 - 89.9%       C   = 70.0 - 74.9%
     B +  = 85.0 - 87.4%       D   = 60.0 - 69.9%
     B	 = 80.0 - 84.9%       F   = below 60.0%
     B -  = 77.5 - 79.9%

PROVISIONS FOR POSSIBLE SYLLABUS ADDENDA OR REVISIONS:

There may be changes in the assignments and dates. Students are responsible for learning of any changes in the syllabus that are announced in class.

COURSE POLICIES:

Students are expected to take full responsibility for his/her academic work and academic progress. Students are expected to attend class regularly, for consistent attendance offers the most effective opportunity open to all students to gain deve loping command of the concepts and materials of the course. A study (Romer, JEP, Summer 1993) found that the difference in performance for a student who attends regularly and one who attends sporadically is about a full letter grade. However, attendance in class, in and of itself, is not a criterion for evaluation of the student's degree of success or failure. Furthermore, absences do not alter what is expected of the student qualitatively and quantitatively. Absences will not be used in the computation of grades.

However, keep in mind the following: for many courses, attendance at section meetings and lectures is incidental to the reading assignments and homework. In such courses, students may quite rationally choose to skip class when they are busy. Bu t in this class, in order to participate in the experiments and to discuss the results, you have to be there. Since everybody participates in the classroom experiments, it is also important that you show up in class on time. If you come in late, you are likely to miss at least some of the experiments on that day. Also, a portion of your grade is based on you participation in classroom discussions, and if you are not present, you cannot participate.

Late assignments will not be accepted. Make-up exams will be given only when the absence of the student results from one of the following causes: illness (where the student is too ill to attend class), religious observance (where the nature of t he observance prevents the student from being present during the class period), participation in university activities at the request of university authorities, and compelling circumstances beyond the student's control. Students requesting a make-up exam must furnish documentary support for their assertion that absence resulted from one of these causes.

Deferred grades are not normally offered. The course material is designed to be completed within the semester time frame.

Academic dishonesty will result in a grade of F for the course.

Class participation is highly encouraged and is a basis for grading. Students are expected to contribute significantly to discussion voluntarily or when called upon.

It is Penn State York's policy to not discriminate against qualified students with documented disabilities.  If you have a disability related need for modifications in this course, please contact me during the first week of class.  You may also wish t o contact the Learning Center for assistance with testing accommodations that extend beyond the scope of the instructor.

Academic support services for this course are available at the Learning Center including study groups, 1:1 tutoring, study skills instruction, and computer support.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

There will be a midterm examination and a final examination. The final examination will cover material from throughout the whole semester. The quizzes and exams will consist of essays, short answer questions, and problems.

Quizzes will be administered approximately every two weeks. Your grade for the quizzes will be based on the sum of your scores on the best 5 of the 6 quizzes. That is, I will drop your worst score. There will be no make-up quizzes.

We will be conducting a number of the experiments in the Experiments with Economic Principles: Microeconomics textbook. The data collected from the experiment conducted in your section will be made available to you on the Web, usually b y the next day.

Preparation for and completion of the experiments follows the following schedule:
1. Read the instructions for the next experiment prior to class.
2. Participate in the experiment.
3. Get the data from this week's experiment, do the lab report and the homework from your textbook. The data will be available on the web, usually within a day of the experiment.
4. Each chapter has a section called "homework", which consists of a series of questions about the theory underlying the experiments. The homework will not be collected or graded, but you should try to do all of the homework from each assigned experimen t. If you like, you can work on this together with your lab partner(s). Your incentive for doing the homework is the fact that homework questions will correspond closely to questions asked on in-class quizzes and the midterm and final examinations. I s trongly encourage you to form "lab partnerships" of two or three persons to work on your lab reports. Doing the homework and the lab report is the best possible preparation for quizzes.

We will be discussing most of the articles in The Economics of Public Issues book. Each selection is followed by a number of questions. You should be prepared to discuss both the article content and the questions at the end of each sel ection. Your classroom participation grade will be based on the quantity and quality of your contribution to the discussion of these articles and to other classroom discussions.

Finally, please feel free to come see me to ask questions or to discuss difficult material. If my office hours are not convenient, you may set up an appointment for an alternative time.