Syllabus
EC104A Intermediate Microeconomics, Fall 2026
Course information
| Instructor | Dr. Colleen O’Briant |
| colleen.obriant at ucr.edu | |
| Office | 4106 Sproul Hall (the building closest to the parking lot, fourth floor) |
| Office hours | Mondays and Wednesdays, 3 to 4 pm, or by appointment |
| Lecture | Mondays and Wednesdays, 5:00 pm to 6:20 pm, MSE 116 |
| Lab sections | Tuesday or Thursday |
| Teaching assistants | TBA |
| Prerequisites | ECON 002, 003, and MATH 009A or equivalent |
Course Description
EC104A covers the first half of intermediate microeconomics: consumer theory, producer theory, and the welfare properties of competitive markets. The course is calculus-based. By the end you will be able to derive a consumer’s demand from first principles, characterize a firm’s cost and supply behavior, find a competitive equilibrium, and measure the welfare consequences of market interventions.
Learning Goals
The subject of this course is microeconomic theory, but what you stand to gain from it is broader: quantitative literacy, the ability to take a real situation, turn it into mathematics, work the mathematics, and bring the answer back to the world with its meaning intact. Every class and lab is built to move you toward one or more of these six goals.
- Model a situation. Translate a story about scarcity into variables, a constraint, and an objective.
- Use math as a tool. Carry out the algebra and calculus that economic questions call for, cleanly and without fear.
- Read and draw graphs. Move between a picture and an equation, and understand what each means.
- Reason at the margin. Decide what to do next by comparing the gain and the cost of one more unit.
- Interpret and predict. Take the math back to the world: say what a number means and what happens next.
- Argue with models. Judge a quantitative claim: find the mistake, name the assumption, build the counterexample.
The Course Overview page maps each class and lab to the goal and level it targets.
Textbook and materials
Required: Hal Varian, Intermediate Microeconomics: A Modern Approach, 9th edition (W. W. Norton). Other editions are acceptable; the chapter numbers may differ slightly. Each class page in this workbook names the chapter to read, and you may read it before or after class.
This workbook is your home base. Class notes are published here after each class, labs are published at the end of each week, and the “check your understanding” questions at the end of every page are what the unit tests are built from.
Canvas is used for unit tests, grades, and announcements.
Phones, laptops, and tablets should be put away during lecture and lab to ensure your attention is on thinking about economics.
How this course works
I teach the way Socrates taught, by asking questions that draw the ideas out of you, because an idea you have worked out for yourself is understood far more deeply than one you have merely been told. There are no slide decks after the first day. In lecture, I pose a problem and you work on it; in lab, your group works a harder one at a whiteboard while the instructor circulates without giving answers.
For that to work, you have to be in the room. Come to class and come to lab. Students who skip them do not succeed in this course. See the Grading page for how attendance and participation are assessed.
Grading
| Percent | Category |
|---|---|
| 80 | Five unit tests (16% each) |
| 10 | Lab participation |
| 10 | Rotating front row |
Unit tests are 50 multiple-choice questions, taken on Canvas with Browser Lockdown during a one-week window, 75 minutes per attempt, up to three attempts 24 hours apart, highest score counts. Lab participation is based on attendance and on evaluations of engagement, collaboration, and perseverance. Each student has two rotating front row days worth 5% each. Final letter grades follow the scale on the Grading page, which also has the complete rules and the front row assignments by last name.
Schedule
Lecture meets Mondays and Wednesdays. Lab sections meet either Tuesday or Thursday; each lab covers the material from the preceding classes. Test windows run Monday morning through Sunday night.
Course policies
Attendance and missed work
Lab attendance and front row participation are graded, so absences lower your grade directly. If you miss your front row day because of an emergency, email me with documentation and we will reschedule you. Unit tests have a one-week window and multiple attempts, so there are no makeup tests; if a documented emergency keeps you from the entire window, contact me before it closes.
Use of AI
This course exists to make you a stronger thinker, and the evidence is that outsourcing your thinking to AI does the opposite: students who practice math with AI do worse once it is taken away (Bastani et al., PNAS, 2025), and people who write with AI engage their brains less and remember less of what they produce (Kosmyna et al., 2025).
Accordingly, no AI tools of any kind may be used during class, lab, or unit tests. If you find that you cannot work a problem without it, that is the signal to come to office hours.
Academic integrity
All work you submit must be your own. On unit tests this means: no notes, books, websites, AI tools, or other people; keep your eyes on the screen; and do not photograph, copy, share, or discuss test questions during the testing window. Attempts flagged by Canvas for suspicious behavior receive a zero, and cases of suspected misconduct are referred to Student Conduct and Academic Integrity Programs under UCR’s Academic Integrity Policies. Collaboration in lab is not only allowed but required; that is what the lab grade rewards.
Accommodations
If you have a disability or medical condition that affects your participation, register with the Student Disability Resource Center (sdrc.ucr.edu) and send me your accommodation letter as early in the quarter as possible so we can put arrangements in place, including extended time on unit tests. Please also let me know if a standing accommodation applies to lab, where students normally stand at the whiteboard.
Wellbeing and support
College is hard, and this course asks a lot of you. If you are struggling, whether with the material or with anything else, please reach out to me early; I would much rather help you find a path forward in week 3 than in week 10. UCR resources include Counseling and Psychological Services (counseling.ucr.edu), Basic Needs and the R’Pantry (basicneeds.ucr.edu), the Academic Resource Center (arc.ucr.edu), and Student Health Services. In an emergency, call 911 or UCPD.
Changes to this syllabus
I may adjust the schedule or policies during the quarter if it serves the class. Any change will be announced in lecture and on Canvas, and this page will be updated.