SYLLABUS FOR

PPA 220A -- APPLIED ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

MASTER'S PROGRAM IN PUBLIC POLICY AND ADMINISTRATION
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, SACRAMENTO

FALL 2002

Professor: Rob Wassmer, Ph.D.

E-Mail: rwassme@csus.edu or rwassme@attbi.com

Home Page: http://www.csus.edu/indiv/w/wassmerr

Office: Room 3037, Tahoe Hall

Class Location:  Wednesday, 6 - 8:50 p.m., 1010 Mariposa Hall or Thursday, 6 - 8:50 p.m., 1025 Tahoe Hall

Office Phone: (916) 278-6304

Office Hours: Wednesday and Thursday, 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. and if necessary by appointment

Required Texts:

(1) Analyzing Policy: Choices, Conflicts, and Practices, Michael C. Munger, Norton (denoted as Munger), available for purchase at CSUS bookstore or on web at Amazon.Com;

(2) Microeconomics: The Easy Way, Walter J. Wessels, Barrons Publishing (denoted as Micro), available for purchase at CSUS bookstore or on web at Amazon.Com;

(3) The Economics of Public Issues, Roger Miller et. al, Addison-Wesley (denoted as Public), 13th Edition, available for purchase at CSUS bookstore or on web at Amazon.Com or VarsityBooks.Com.

Internet Access:

I will post outlines on material covered in class and brief answers to home work questions at my web site. I will also correspond with you through e-mail and collect an address to do so on the first night's class.  Sometimes I will ask you to read things off the web.  Thus, access to the Internet is required for this class. If you do not have it at work or home, access is provided to students at the university's library.

Overview:

The purpose of this course is to expose you to the basic concepts and tools of microeconomics as they apply to public policy analysis. We will study how economists think about household decisions, business decisions, government decisions, and benefit/cost analysis.

The prerequisite for this course is the receipt of a B grade or above in a previous introductory (undergraduate) course in microeconomics (ECON1B in CSU or California community college system). Even though this is the official requirement, I will review basic microeconomic principles before assuming that you remember them. If your microeconomics is a bit rusty, Microeconomics: The Easy Way is the appropriate reference. For a more complete review, pull out your old microeconomics textbook.

Microeconomics offers many insights into understanding how business, government, and people interact. Some of the most serious problems that individuals and society face are economic based. An understanding of economics is therefore part of deriving solutions to these problems. As future public policy gurus, an understanding of the economic principles taught in this curse is essential to your ability to provide good public policy analyses.

A goal of mine has always been to try to improve the way that economics is taught to university students. I would consider myself a success if I could get you to learn some economics, appreciate its value to the career choice you have made, and to have a part of your brain think like an economist. Notice that I emphasize only a part of your brain. Good policy analysts have to also consider relevant political and administrative issues, and the social ramifications of proposed public policy. The development of these other parts of your brain will be accomplished through the other courses you take in this program. Please share with me, even before teaching evaluations are given, your opinion on any of my teaching methods.

The course consists of one 165 minute meeting a week (a 15 minute break will be given in the middle of each class). Each week you should plan on devoting at least three hours outside of the classroom to study related to this course. It is important that you attend all lectures. To help insure and reward attendance, I require that each Wednesday or Thursday you hand in a a well-developed typed question that you still have after doing the assigned reading for the current week. (On the first day of class I will provide an example.) You will also be asked to complete typed exercises. Your question and exercises can only be turned in on the Wednesday or Thursday that they are due (no exceptions). This acts as a form of attendance. An "A+", "A", "A-", B+", ..., "C", "C-", "D", or "F" (not turned in) will be recorded for each of these. There will 12 such assignments and you are allowed to drop the lowest two grades.

Questions and comments pertaining to that night's class are encouraged during class. Other questions will be answered during my office hours. Office hours can also be used to handle a suggestion on how the class is taught, a general discussion of economics, the Public Policy and Administration Program, or your career plans.  Please make a point of stopping by to visit me at least once during the semester (a way of getting me to remember your name and another way of getting the participation part of your grade up).

At a minimum, the last 45 minutes of each night's class will be devoted to a student-centered discussion on topics relevant to that night's material.  The background material for these discussions are listed in the reading assignments.  Each person will be assigned a group label of A, B, or C.  Each of these groups will carry a certain responsibility for a discussion that will be given out the previous week.  Each of you are expected to interact during this discussion and a large portion of your classroom participation grade will be determined then.

Examination Procedure:

Material for exams will be taken out of assigned reading, class time, and homework. I will provide a sample exam early in the semester.  If you have an illness or emergency, if at all possible, I expect to be notified before the exam takes place. If you fail to show up for an exam without contacting me, or if you cannot provide written documentation of why you missed, you will receive a zero on the exam.

Midterm: A standard meeting will not be held on October 9 (Wednesday) or October 10 (Thursday) due to a prior commitment I have made to the university.  Instead, you should come by office and pick up essay questions to answer for your midterm examination.  On your honor, you will have 2.5 hours to answer these questions on your own and then return your answers to under my office door by 9 p.m. that night.  More details will follow in class. 

Final:  A take-home final exam will be given out the last day of class (December 11 or 12) and due December 18 or 19.  This exam will be structured as a group project in which a small group of students will work together to answer a series of questions.  Though cooperation within groups is encouraged, there can be no cooperation across groups.  More details will follow in class.

Grading Procedure:

Exam grades will be calculated using the following formula:

A number grade will be assigned to everything you do. Your final grade will be calculated based on these number grades.

Your midterm exam grade accounts for 30 percent of your final grade. The final exam grade accounts for 30 percent of your final grade. The average grade earned on the 11 weekly assignments that count also account for 30 percent of your final grade. Classroom participation makes up the remaining 10 percent of your final grade. 

University policy for dropping this course will be followed. You must complete the midterm and final exam to receive a passing grade.

Schedule:

The following schedule lists the major topics covered and the assigned reading that accompanies them. I reserve the right to make minor changes and additions to the following schedule.  Underlined material is hyper linked and you should click on it from your web browser to get.