The midterm on Wednesday, March 9 will cover lectures through Monday, March 7 as well as text chapters 1-3, 6, 8, and 10-14 Ch. 29 pp. 557-59 and the supplemental readings assigned.  The exam will not cover the 323D readings discussed on Fridays.  The supplemental readings covered on the exam are:

Boyes and Melvin, Chapter 1, Fundamental of Economics. (this is just for basic economics review)

Heilbroner and Milberg, Chapter 3, p. 50-7, The Emergence of Market Society, in The Making of Economic Society, 10th edition.

Axtell, Colonial America without the Indians:  A Counterfactual Scenario, in Indians in American History, edited by Hoxie.

Wilkinson, Indian Tribes and the American Constitution, in Indians in American History, edited by Hoxie.

Heilbroner and Milberg, Chapter 4, The Industrial Revolution, in The Making of Economic Society, 10th edition.

As always, everything is "fair game" for the exam.  However, the materials I cover in class are the topics I feel are most important.  The test format will include short answer/definition and essay questions.

Answering the following sample essay questions will provide valuable practice for the exam:

[UPDATE March 6, 2016: We will NOT cover questions #12 and #26]

1. Explain Adam Smith's concept of the "invisible hand." According to Smith, what increases the wealth of nations?
2. Why do economists often put a "dollar price tag" on things?  Be sure to discuss how willingness to pay signals value and the problems associated with using money as a measure of welfare.
3. What is the difference between "size" of the pie and "slice" of the pie (efficiency versus equity).
4. What is opportunity cost?  Explain how trade makes both participants better off.
5. Within twenty years of the landing at Jamestown, the first permanent British settlers in North America privatized their land holdings.  Explain the problems with communal property rights that the early settlers faced, including the free rider problem.
6. Throughout the colonial period, the costs of passage to North America were at least half a year's earnings.  Discuss the institutional arrangements which developed to facilitate a high rate of migration to the colonies, such as indentured servitude, redemptioners, headright system, and the Georgia Colony.
7. Slavery was an important part of economic life during the colonial period in the southern colonies, as well as in the Caribbean (where most of the slaves were shipped).  Explain why slavery did not develop in the northern colonies.
8. Explain how comparative advantage and scarcity influenced the patterns of regional economic production of goods and services in the southern, middle, and New England colonies.
9. According to Axtell, in what ways would colonial life have differed if there were no native Americans?  Be specific.  Do you agree or disagree with him?
10. According to Wilkinson, what is the legal basis for Indian sovereignty?  In general, do states have much legal authority over reservations that lie within their borders?
11. How did the colonies develop a money supply to facilitate exchange within the colonies and with England?  Be sure to list the various types of "money" used.  What problems arose through the use of paper money?
12. Why did the colonists revolt against Britain?  Discuss the most likely as well as the least likely explanation(s).  Be sure to support your claims with specific events.
13. How did the U.S. government solve the problem of transferring public lands into private ownership?  Using supporting evidence, indicate whether its policies were efficient.  Were policies fair?  Be sure to list the relevant land acts from 1785-1862 and their significance.  
14. Who was moving into the new western lands of the Midwest, the South, and California, during the 1800s, and what was drawing them?
15. What was the Industrial Revolution and where were its effects first felt?  Explain how life changed after this revolution in both the economic and social spheres.
16. How did the early textile mills around 1800-1830 differ from other forms of production at the time?  Explain the factory system.
17. Define and explain the benefits and drawbacks of corporations, and explain "general laws of incorporation."
18. Why were women and children important in early industrialization?  Describe changes in earnings (real wages) of female and male workers in manufacturing, 1820-1860 and what demographic forces contributed to changes in earnings and work force composition.
19. Describe the bimetallic standard that the United States was on after Independence, and explain the problems and benefits associated with minting two metals.
20. During the Antebellum period, hundreds of banks issued their own currency.  What were the problems that arose and what were some of the government and private attempts to solve them?
21. "Northern slaves paid for their own emancipation."  Explain the meaning of this statement.
22. "The immense human cost of the Civil War was unjustified since slavery would have died out on its own."  Provide evidence to agree or disagree with this statement.
23. To what degree were slaves "exploited?"  Be sure to consider physical condition and material possessions of slaves.  Be specific. 
24. Compare the efficiency in production of southern slave plantations and non-slave southern farms.  How did gang-labor contribute to the differences in productive efficiency? 
25. What was the importance of the Missouri Compromise and the Kansas-Nebraska Act?
26. Did the well-being of freed slaves increase dramatically after emancipation?  Use specific examples to support your position.
27. Explain and evaluate the competing theories for why the U.S. South experienced a drop in income and a sustained income gap with the North after the Civil War.  Be sure to consider share cropping, debt peonage, and the reliance on cotton production.