MICROECONOMICS - 1

Microeconomics studies how individuals, firms, the government, and other organizations make choices given the options available to them and how their decisions determine market prices and the allocation of society’s resources. The main objective of the course is to make students familiar with the economic way of thinking. We will cover the basic concepts and analytical tools of microeconomics and show how they can be used to understand a broad range of real-world problems. We will analyse both firms’ and consumers’ behaviour, market equilibria, principles of game theory and the role of the government in the economy.

The main objective of the course is to make students familiar with the economic way of thinking.

You are expected to be comfortable with the material covered in the Mathematics Prerequisite course. Knowledge of Microeconomics-1 is necessary to understand the topics covered in Microeconomics-2.

The topics covered in Microeconomics-1 include:

Introduction to Microeconomics
1. Analyzing Economic Problems
2. Demand and Supply Analysis

Consumer Theory
3. Consumer Preferences and Utility Functions
4. Consumer Choice
5. The Theory of Demand
6. Applications of Consumer Theory

Theory of the Firm
7. Inputs and Production Functions
8. Costs and Cost Minimiza

Bernheim, B. D., and Whinston, M. D., 2008, Microeconomics McGraw-Hill/Irwin, Inc. New York, NY.

Alternative references:

Besanko, D., and Braeutigam, R. R., 2014, Microeconomics, 5th Edition, John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Hoboken, NJ.

There will be one final grade for the whole 12-credit course.
Alternatively, students who regularly attend classes and submit at least 3 assignments before the midterm exam can take two midterms covering the material discussed in the first and in the second module, respectively.

Lectures and practice sessions.
For any course-related information, students can follow the course website:
https://moodle.unive.it/course/view.php?id=1756#section-1

The slides of the lectures and the problem sets will be uploaded on Moodle on a regular basis. The solutions of the problem sets will only be posted after each class.

Students are strongly encouraged to actively participate in class meetings and regularly work through the weekly problem sets.

English

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