Microeconomics (2018/2019)

Learning outcomes

The aim of this unit is to provide students with appropriate tools for understanding how firms and consumers take their decisions and how markets are organized, with particular emphasis on the concepts of optimization and equilibrium. Upon completing the course, the student must demonstrate to know the organization of the markets and the behavior of firms and consumers within such markets. The student will also be able to express judgments on the implications deriving from the economic agents’ choices and to compare the different market structures.

Textbook (recommended): "Microeconomia" by Hal R. Varian, Cafoscarina, 2007.
Additional material is available on the e-learning website.

The following program refers to the sixth edition of the textbook (2007).
Consumer Theory:
• Budget constraint (Varian, Chapter 2).
• Preferences and indifference curves (Varian, Chapter 3).
• Utility (Varian, Chapter 4).
• Choice (Varian, Chapter 5).
• Demand (Varian, Chapter 6).
• Slutsky equation (Varian, Chapter 8).
• Buying and selling (Varian, Chapter 9).
• Intertemporal Choice (Varian, Chapter 10).
• Choice under uncertainty (Varian, Chapter 12).
• Consumer's Surplus (Varian, Chapter 14).
• Market demand and elasticity (Varian, Chapter 15).
• Equilibrium (Varian, Chapter 16).

Production Theory:
• Technology (Varian, Chapter 18).
• Profit maximization (Varian, Chapter 19).
• Cost minimization (Varian, Chapter 20).
• Cost Curves (Varian, Chapter 21).

Market structure:
• Perfect competition in the short and the long term (Varian, Chapters 22 and 23).
• Monopoly (Varian, Chapter 24).
• Monopoly behavior (Varian, Chapter 25).
• Oligopoly (Varian, Chapter 27).

Interaction:
• Nash equilibrium and Game Theory (Varian, Chapter 28).
• Exchange (Varian, Chapter 31).
• Asymmetric Information (Varian, Chapter 37).

There will be an intermediate written exam (about halfway through the semester). This exam focuses on the topics covered up to that point. It consists of a test of multiple-choice questions (some of which will take the form of exercises).

The mid-term exam is optional. The score of the mid-term exam will count 50% of the final score. The aim of the intermediate exam is to encourage the students to a systematic study.

The final exam follows the same procedures as the intermediate exam: it consists of a test of multiple-choice questions.

In both the intermediate and final exams, a wrong answer in the multiple-choice questions will have a negative score.

STUDENT MODULE EVALUATION - 2017/2018