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Welcome to Principles of Microeconomics

Fall 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....

This guy’s pretty cool.

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, US Federal ReserveJanet Yellen – Chairwoman, 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?

What about the impact of the Great Recession?

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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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Why you should come to class, economically speaking.

• Tuition and fees is $8087 for an in-state student. For a student taking 5 classes per semester, this class costs $809.

• There are 29 scheduled classes, so each class costs an average of $27.88.

• For a college graduate, the estimated gross returns are $4.00 for every $1.00 spent on education.

• If you graduate, each class would be worth an average of $111.54 in additional gross lifetime income ($83.66 net)!

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For you specifically

• What about YSU?

• http://collegerealitycheck.com/en/colleges/compare/

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Scarlett Marie Wants You…

• …to do well in this class!

The key to Success in this class:

• Practice

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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

Use S.I.

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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- Study. Spend time reviewing the material outside of class.

- Put effort into assignments and prepare for quizzes.

- Review questions on the quizzes, especially the ones you get wrong.

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

- Come see me in my office or email me questions.

- Use the Grad Student tutors (hours to follow).- Think positive!