Objective:
The course objective is to provide a comprehensive overview of core concepts in Microeconomics. Emphasis is placed on basic economic concepts such as: the interactions of supply and demand in any market; the nature and functions of product markets and input factor markets; the theory of consumer choice; the analysis of firm behavior under different market structures; the impact of market failure on social welfare; and the positive and negative potential of government tax and regulatory policy.
Learning Outcomes:
- explain basic economic concepts like gains from trade and opportunity costs
- anticipate the market impacts from changes in market supply and demand
- use a production possibilities frontier model to explain the costs of alternative choices
- explain how opportunity costs, scarcity and production inefficiency affect market prosperity
- use marginal analysis to maximize profits for firms and maximize utility for consumers
- explain the difference in perspectives in short run and long run production decisions
- explain how market power determines a firm's profitability and production efficiency
- assess the capability of government to improve social welfare when intervening in markets
General Course Topics:
- Introduction
- Strategies for success
- Basics economic concepts
- The basics of supply and demand
- Measuring market responsiveness and social welfare
- Income elasticity and cross-price elasticity
- Consumer and producer surplus
- Impact of a tax on consumer and producer surplus
- Theory of consumer choice
- Deriving consumer demand curves, normal goods versus inferior goods
- The relationship between production and costs
- The relationship between production measures and cost measures
- Firm behavior and market structure -perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, monopoly
- Labor and capital markets