The course covers topics of consumer theory, production theory, industrial organization, and experimental/behavioral economics. It is divided into three parts. The first part will analyze economic models of individual decision-making, consumer behavior, and firm behavior. The second part will provide students with rigorous economic tools for the analysis of market structure and market relations. The third part will introduce concepts of experimental and behavioral economics, paying particular attention to alternative theories of individual choice behavior. Theoretical lectures will be complemented by practical exercise classes and tutorials aiming at applying the concepts and methods developed during the course. At the end of the course, students should be able to: - understand the determinants of consumers' and firms' choices as well as the fundamental characteristics of different market structures, - apply economic models for the analysis of markets structure and behavior, - critically assess the implications of different behavioral models for the analysis of individual and group choices.
Individual decision making:
- preferences,
- choices,
- utility function,
- demand theory,
- production.
Markets structures and Organization:
- perfect competition,
- advanced monopoly theory,
- markets for homogeneous/differentiated products,
- collusion.
Experimental and behavioral economics:
- methods of experimental economics,
- external validity issue,
- social preferences (equity, fairness, trust and reciprocity, altruism),
- applications to industrial organization.
| Author | Title | Publisher | Year | ISBN | Note |
| Jehle Geoffrey and Reny Philip | Advanced Microeconomic Theory (Edizione 3) | Pearson | 2011 | ||
| Shy Oz | Industrial Organization: Theory and Applications (Edizione 2) | MIT Press | 1999 |
Students' preparation will be assessed through a written exam that will include open questions on the theory and a number of exercises. The exam will test the students' accurate and thorough understanding of the concepts, methods, and models explained during the course as well as their ability to use theoretical tools in order to solve empirical questions.
Moreover, students are given the opportunity to present an article to the class. The lecturer will distribute the articles among which a student can select the one (s)he wants to present.
