Overview
The Microeconomics Learning Portfolio
This learning portfolio consists of a series of short writing assignments. You will be required to complete and revise these assignments throughout the course term, and to compile and submit your completed portfolio by the due date. After the assignment directions, near the bottom of this document, there is a section on how the portfolio will be graded, a section containing an example portfolio which might be useful to you, and a suggested guide for critically analyzing your work before submitting it. General Directions: • Please complete ALL of the individual assignments listed below, and compile them into one document to submit by the due date. Note that some chapters do not have a corresponding assignment (e.g. chapter 1). • Do not work with anyone else, and do not look for answers on the internet or use AI (not even for writing help) unless the prompt specifically allows it. This assignment is used to assess your learning, like a test but in a non-test environment, so it must be exclusively your work product. Violations of this requirement will result in a grade of 0 on the learning portfolio, which makes up a large portion of the course grade. • Please do not include the question prompts in your assignment submission. • Please number each assignment, and if the assignment has different parts, number/letter those appropriately so I can find the responses I'm looking for (and so that you are sure you are responding thoroughly to the prompts). • Please submit your compiled and revised learning portfolio document using one of the following programs/formats: Microsoft Word/.doc or .docx, Open Office/.odt, or Adobe Acrobat/.pdf. Other formats (like .pages from Apple users) are not acceptable since I cannot read them. Also, do not submit a link to your assignment, which I will not click on. • Follow the directions for each individual assignment closely. This sounds simple, but most of the points people lose are due to failure to follow the directions. I recommend proof reading your work before you submit it, and critically analyzing your work to ensure that you responded directly to each and every prompt/question. • Use your best writing skills. This assignment should reflect college-level writing ability and may be graded lower if it does not. High school-level work uses proper
grammar, punctuation, spelling, sentence structure, and reasonable paragraph lengths, so these components are mandatory in this assignment. The use of AI is prohibited, including the use of Grammarly or other writing tools. You need to be able to express your ideas clearly in your own voice. • There are no length requirements for the individual assignments, so please do not try to lengthen your submission by including fluff, by being redundant, or using formatting tricks. But at the same time, do not provide superficial responses. Take your time to respond to the prompts in a complete, meaningful way, and whatever length it ends up being is the “right” length. • BE HONEST! Do not work with other students on this assignment, copy things from the internet, or try to use AI like ChatGPT or Grammarly. I have a powerful technology platform that catches 98% of this, and it will result in a “zero” grade on the entire assignment. If two people submit identical work for any portion of the learning portfolio, both parties will receive no credit for the entire assignment regardless of who the original author of the work is... If you show someone your work for any reason you expose yourself to these consequences, so don’t do it. If I provide an example to you, do not simply use my words and substitute a different example –you will get a zero on that specific part of the learning portfolio if you do so. Individual Assignment Directions: Chapter 2: Chapter 2 shows and discusses the gains from trade that can result when individuals, firms, or countries specialize in producing goods for which they have the comparative advantage, and trade those goods with others. Gains from specialization and exchange can be seen in many situations. For example, most people that we pay to do things for us (e.g. grow our food, cut our hair, tutor us, etc.) perform the task for a lower opportunity cost than we would bear if we were to do it ourselves. This is where the gain from trade that benefits both parties comes from, and is why it is rational for you to pay for the service. 1. What is the item, and how much did you pay for it? Please do not use a gift you received or something you purchased with a gift card (these have confused students in the past. Make sure your choice is a type of vinaigrette salad dressing. 2. What is a reasonable estimate of how long it would take you (not the actual producer) to make the item if you hadn't been able to buy it? You need to come up with a number of hours or days or years, or whatever time measurement you want,
for how long it would take you. Don't try to avoid this. If you can't estimate it, you should pick another good. 3. Who worked to get the money to pay for the item, and how long did they have to work? It is essential that you state a specific amount of time that was worked to get the money to pay for the item. If your money came from the government, you can assume that the worker who was taxed to pay for your consumption earned $40 per hour. 4. Based on your answers to 2 and 3 above, was it rational to buy the good? Explain this by specifically comparing the time it would take you to make the good (mentioned in part 2) and the amount of time that had to be worked to get the money (mentioned in part 3). It is only rational to buy something if you give up less time and resources working to earn money to pay, than you would have if you made the good yourself. If it turned out to be irrational, why did you buy it? The most common mistake people make on this is not explicitly following the directions in the prompt, especially part 4.