Insegnamento a.a. 2023-2024

30325 - INTRODUCTION TO ECONOMICS (MODULE I - MICROECONOMICS)

Department of Economics

Course taught in English
Go to class group/s: 23
BIG (8 credits - I sem. - OB  |  SECS-P/01)
Course Director:
SARA NEGRELLI

Classes: 23 (I sem.)
Instructors:
Class 23: SARA NEGRELLI


Mission & Content Summary

MISSION

This course introduces the main issues of individual economic behavior with a reference to consumers and firms, and the analysis of competitive and non-competitive markets. Presenting and discussing the different topics, through exercises and classes and through the discussion of actual cases, the student is able to understand many problems of the functioning of the markets. Students also receive an introduction to game theory, with an emphasis on applications in political science. Finally, this course provides also the background to understand the aggregate models of the whole economy.

CONTENT SUMMARY

  • Consumption Decisions.
  • Production Decisions.
  • Competitive Equilibrium.
  • Market Intervention.
  • Monopoly.
  • Game Theory.
  • Oligopoly.
  • Public Goods.
  • Choice under Uncertainty.
  • Asymmetric Information.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILO)

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

At the end of the course student will be able to...
  • Understand the consumption decisions by individuals.
  • Identify different market structures.
  • Understand the production decisions by firms in markets with different degrees of competitiveness.
  • Distinguish different sources of economic inefficiency.

APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

At the end of the course student will be able to...
  • Evaluate the effect of public policies on consumers' and firms' incentives.
  • Apply game theory to the analysis of firms' market strategies.
  • Design regulatory interventions to achieve desirable market outcomes.

Teaching methods

  • Face-to-face lectures
  • Online lectures
  • Exercises (exercises, database, software etc.)
  • Group assignments

DETAILS

The learning experience of this course includes, in addition to face-to-face and online lectures, the solution of Problem Sets assigned to students throughout the course. Those exercises allow students to apply the analytical tools illustrated during the course. Moreover, students will partecipate, in group or inividually, to the creation of a blog on microeconomics worldwide news.


Assessment methods

  Continuous assessment Partial exams General exam
  • Written individual exam (traditional/online)
   x x
  • Group assignment (report, exercise, presentation, project work etc.)
 x    

ATTENDING AND NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS

The exam is exclusively written and consists of open-ended and exercise questions.

The open-ended questions are aimed at assessing students’ ability to:

-Conduct an economic reasoning

-Identify different market structures

-Distinguish different sources of economic inefficiency.

The exam also includes exercise questions, aimed at  assessing students’ ability to:

-Apply the analytical tools illustrated during the course

-Understand the consumption decisions by individuals and the production decisions by firms in markets with different degrees of competitiveness.

-Evaluate the effect of public policies on consumers' and firms' incentives.

Course performance could be evaluated in two different ways:

  • A partial exam covering the first part of the course, followed by a final exam covering the second part of the course. Each exam lasts 1 hour and consists of exercises and open ended questions. The grade in each exam is between 0 and 30. The course is passed if the grade in both exams is at least 18. In this case, the final grade is the mean of the two, rounded upwards. Students who fail the exam can retake it, in the general exam format. 
  • A general exam which lasts 1 hour, covers the whole course and consists of exercises and open ended questions. The grade in the general exam is between 0 and 30. The course is passed if the grade in the general exam is at least 18. Students who fail the exam can retake it, in the general exam format.

Students can obtain up to 1 extra point for writing a microeconomics article on the class blog (in group-max 3 students per group- or individually). This homework is aimed at assessing students' ability to apply the concepts and tools illustrated during the course to real world economic situations and to show how to design regulatory interventions to achieve desirable market outcomes.


Teaching materials


ATTENDING AND NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS

  • B. DOUGLAS BERMHEI, D. WHINSTON, Microeconomics, ISBN : 9781307298048
  • Microeconomics, Exercises, Egea, 2020.
Last change 23/05/2023 15:57