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Welcome to Principles of Microeconomics

Spring 2014

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Name that Economist

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This guy is formerly very important.

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Now she’s very important....

We’ll talk about this guy…

and this guy...

And a little about this guy.

Economics Gets People to Places – Some Past Economics Majors

Business leaders:Warren Buffett - CEO, Berkshire HathawayDonald Trump – Real estate/TV mogulSam Walton – Founder, Wal-MartMeg Whitman – CEO, EbaySteve Ballmer – CEO, Microsoft

Heads of state:George H. W. Bush – US presidentGerald Ford – US presidentRonald Reagan – US presidentStephen Harper – Prime minister, CanadaManmohan Singh – Prime minister, India

Public officials: Sandra Day O’Connor – Supreme Court justiceArnold Schwarzenegger – Governor/PhilandererBarbara Boxer – US SenatorBen Bernanke – Chairman, the US Federal ReserveKofi Annan – UN secretary General

Entertainers, athletes, and others:Cate Blanchett – ActressMick Jagger – SingerYoung MC – SingerLionel Richie - SingerBernie Kosar – NFL quarterbackTiger Woods – Golfer/PhilandererMuhammad Yunus – Nobel Peace Prize winner

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My girls.

Why should you finish your degree?

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Your major also matters.• If you want a really high paying job you should

major in….

• …engineering.

• If you want a high paying job in business or social sciences you should major in….

• http://chronicle.com/article/Median-Earnings-by-Major-and/127604/

• If you want a really high paying job you should major in….

• …engineering.

• If you want a high paying job in business or social sciences you should major in…

• If you want a really high paying job you should major in….

• …engineering.

• If you want a high paying job in business or social sciences you should major in….

Put another way - ROI?

• Study by Barrow and Rouse:

• “Lifetime incomes of college grads in today's dollars average nearly $300,000 more than high school graduates over a 40-year career. And that's the net benefit, after deducting an average cost of more than $100,000 in tuition, room and board and potential income lost while attending college.”

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What about YSU?

• (http://www.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/bs_collegeROI_0621.html -15)

• What about starting salary?

• http://collegerealitycheck.com/colleges/206695/ 13

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Why you should come to class, economically speaking.

• For an in-state student taking 5 classes this semester class costs $812.50 (including fees).

• There are 28 scheduled classes, so each class session costs $29.00 on average.

• For a YSU graduate, the estimated gross returns are between $4.00 - $5.60 for every $1.00 spent on education!

• Using this measure, on average, each class is worth between $116.07 - $162.40 in additional gross lifetime income ($87.07 – $133.40 net)!

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Scarlett Marie Wants You…

• …to do well in this class!

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Attendance is not required?Attendance and Grade Distribution

ATTENDANCEGRADE

N Students A B C D F

0-1 6 0 0 0 1 5

2 8 0 0 1 4 3

3 15 1 2 4 5 3

4 26 3 6 8 7 2

5 39 12 8 13 5 3

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Your First (of many) Graphs

The key to Success in this class:

• Practice

Another interesting graph

The more you go to SI....

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Read – and use - the book

• More of this

• Less of this

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- Review the material outside of class.

- Put effort into assignments and prepare for quizzes.

- Do the study guide practice problems that are posted on the class website.

- Come see me in my office, even if it’s not my office hours.

- See Josephine Adofo, your Graduate student tutor.

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Microeconomics

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Macroeconomics