econ1000

 

Guide to Midterm

Page history last edited by Sam Lanfranco 1 yr ago

 

(Guide to the 1000 Midterm Exam (October 16th)

NOTE: I will be out of the Province from Oct 2nd until Oct 8th. I will access email on occasion. I will be back and readily available by email after October 8th.

I will hold extra office hours on October 16th (from noon to 6:30pm).

I will try to arrange extra office hours for Wednesday October 15th as well. Watch here for details.

Exam Information:

    • The ECON 1000  midterm exam is set for Thursday, October 16th.

    • The exam will be in Room 109 Accolade Building West (ACW-209).

  • The exam starts at 7:00pm, is 120 minutes long, and has 45 multiple choice questions.

  • Do your preliminary work on the pages of the exam and transfer your answers to the Scantron sheet. (Hint: draw lots of diagrams to help you think about the questions)

  • Make sure you fill out the top of the Scantron sheet correctly. See: Scantron Information    Scantron.pdf

  • Be sure to sign the attendance sheet – to verify that you took the exam

  • The exam will cover Chapters 1 through 5 (up to page 100). See details below. You will be given any needed equations in the exam room.

  • Oh! you might want to review your class notes!

Study Guide for the Midterm Exam: General Advice

Do the sample exam questions and those at the back of chapters. Answers to odd numbered questions are online at the publisher's study help page. Use the publisher's online study help. Do the iStudy questions. Practice...practice...practice. The quizzes and problems test your knowledge of the concepts and the applications and – in general – they are harder than the exam.

  • Review the “Learning Outcomes” and “Summary” for each chapter and ask yourself what were you supposed to learn and how well you now understand the concepts and their use in applications and policy analysis.

  • Know the definitions of the “Key Terms” and review how they are used in the chapter.

  • Practice and be comfortable with the Review Questions

  • You will not be tested on the content of the “Application Boxes” but you should study them as a test of your understanding of the ideas in the chapter.

  • You will not be asked to remember specific numbers from the text, or examples from class. You are learning a set of analytical tools - to understand economics and the economy at various levels ranging from the individual consumer and producer, through to the market, the national and the global levels.

  • AGAIN: Make use of the supplemental study aids offered by the publisher at: McGraw-Hill Curtis Text Assistance

  • NOTE: If you are not using the Curtis text, be sure to make use of the free supplemental study aids, and borrow someone's text for a few hours to see if there is something Curtis covers that your source doesn't.

Specific Chapter Advice

  • Chapter 1: Economics and Society (7 QUESTIONS)

    • What is micro economics about?

    • Be comfortable with the Production Possibility Frontier (PPF), efficiency and the notion of Opportunity Cost.

    • Be able to identify the role of the market in addressing the challenges of scarcity.

    • Be assured that you will be quizzed on the difference between normative and positive economics.

    • What does the Economist's Credo tell you about how economists think?

  • Chapter 2: The Tools of Economic Analysis (8 QUESTIONS)

    • In simple terms, what is a model and what is a theory?

    • What are the different types of data used in economics?

    • Be able to construct simple time series index numbers (based on annual data) and be able to express them with reference to a base year.

    • What is the difference between nominal and real variables?

    • Be comfortable with the geometry and algebra of a straight line (i.e., variations on Y = a + bX) so you can use them in your analysis. Most of the questions will use simple supply and demand geometry, as in the text.

    • What is the point of the stuff about theories & evidence, and accepting or rejecting theories?

    • What are grounds (or basis) on which economists disagree?

  • Chapter 3: Demand, Supply and the Market (10 QUESTIONS)

    • Understand how supply and demand factors generate a market equilibrium

    • Understand the difference between "changes in quantity supplied and demanded” and "shifts/changes in supply and demand” (i.e., movement along a curve and movement of the curve)

    • Understand the meaning and use of the “other things being equal” assumption.

    • Be able to compute simple market outcomes give linear demand and supply functions.

    • Understand the factors that underlie demand, those that underlie supply, and how changes in them are reflected on the simple Supply & Demand model.

    • Know how to analyze the market outcomes of shifts in demand, shifts in supply.

    • Know how to analyze market interventions such as price ceilings, price floors, or production quotas.

    • How do markets address the What, How and For Whom?

       

    • Chapter 4: Elasticities of Demand and Supply (10 QUESTIONS)

  • Understand how elasticities are measures of responsiveness of quantity variables (demand, supply) to price or income variables.

  • Know and differentiate between (own) price elasticity of demand, cross price elasticity of demand, and income elasticity of demand.

  • Understand the meaning of average elasticity, arc elasticity and point elasticity

  • Identify the elastic, unitary elastic and inelastic portions of a demand curve

  • Know what constitute the “extreme cases” (vertical, horizontal) of demand elasticity

  • What are the factors determing (own) price elasticity?

  • How does elasticity relate to total expenditure/total revenue?

  • Why do long run elasticities differ from short run elasticities?

  • When do cross elasticities of demand indicate complement or substitute goods?

  • How does income elasticity of demand reflect normal, inferior, necessary and luxury goods?

  • Understand average supply elasticity, arc supply elasticity, and point supply elasticity. (similar to demand elasticity concepts)

  • IMPORTANT: Understand how supply and demand elasticities determine the incidence (burden) of a tax in a market for goods or services.

 

  • Chapter 5: Welfare Economics (10 QUESTIONS)

  • What are Consumer Surplus, Producer Surplus, and Dead Weight Loss?

  • How are they measured?

  • How do they relate to efficient market outcomes?

  • Estimate the efficiency cost (lost consumer and producer surplus) of taxation, or subsidies in a given a situation (e.g. 15% tax, $5 tax, etc.)

  • Review Taxation and impact the supply of labour.

  • Never, NEVER, forget the importance of elasticities in the analysis.

    That is it....only 100 pages to master. Go for an "A", or at least a good learning experience. Test yourself. Remember: If you do poorly, just do better on the final exam that becomes 90% of your course grade. Your midterm grade will only count 10%.

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