Kazakh Institute of Management, Economics, and Forecasting

Almaty, Kazakhstan

13 October, 2000

Clarification: There will be no midterm for this class. The other sections of Economics for Managers are having Midterms. We are not. The Final Exam will count 30% of your grade. The other 70% will be determined from a combination of Homeworks, Quizzes, and your Personal Project.

First Hour:

• Discussion of Monopoly, Natural Monopoly, Barriers to Entry, and other compromises to the argument for economic efficiency.

• Our focus should be on the question: "Why do we typically not see perfect competition and economic efficiency in the real world?"
• A natural follow-up question: "Should we try to encourage markets and firms to imitate the model of perfect competition? If not. Why not? If yes. How?"

Second Hour:

• Presentation/discussion on public and private property rights as seen with restaurants’ use of public sidewalks.
• Presentation/discussion on legal restrictions and requirements for banking in Kazakhstan.
• Presentation/discussion of news articles.

1. Prepare the topic of Monopolistic Competition, including subtopics of the model’s characteristics, price and output determination, product discrimination, and the question of whether economic efficiency is sacrificed with Monopolistic Competition.
2. Write a summary, short analysis, and opinion on the world oil market. Is it best characterized as a competitive market? A monopoly? Or something in between? Describe Kazakhstan’s place among other oil producers. What are Kazakhstan’s advantages? Disadvantages? Are there other oil producers that Kazakhstan should emulate?