32424 - Advanced Microeconomics

Academic Year 2014/2015

  • Docente: Nadia Burani
  • Credits: 10
  • SSD: SECS-P/01
  • Language: Italian
  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Economics and Economic Policy (cod. 8420)

Learning outcomes


Course contents

PART I: CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION DECISIONS
Consumer theory
1. Consumer behaviour: utility maximization
2. Choice: comparative statics
3. Demand: aggregation
4. Intertemporal choices
Theory of the firm
 5. Technology and production function 
6. Profit maximization
7. Cost minimization
8. Cost function

PART II: DECISIONS UNDER UNCERTAINTY
9. Expected utility theory
10. Lotteries and risk aversion

PART III: GENERAL EQUILIBRIUM
11. Pure exchange economies
12. Production

Readings/Bibliography

The main textbook is H. R. Varian: "Microeconomic Analysis", third Edition 1992, W.W. Northon & Co. Inc.

Further readings:

  • D.M. Kreps: "A Course in Microeconomic Theory", Prentice Hall, 1990
  • A. Mas-Colell, M.D. Whinston, J.R. Green:"Microeconomic Theory", Oxford University Press, 1995
  • G.A. Jehle, P. Reny: "Advanced Microeconomic Theory", Prentice Hall, 2010.

See also the course's web-page:
www2.dse.unibo.it/burani/microav2014.htm

Finally, download the course's slides on AMScampus

Teaching methods

Lectures and tutorials.

As for mathematical prerequisites, a good knowlwdge of the following topics is needed:

  • linear algebra
  • functions of many variables
  • differential calculus
  • optimization subject to constraints
Students who lack such prerequisites are invited to catch up as soon as possible by attending the crash-course in Mathematics by Nardini and by studying the mathematical appendices of the above-listed texts. 

Assessment methods

The final assessment consists in a written examination with analytical exercises and theoretical questions. Analytical exercises are worth 2/3 of the final grade while theoretical questions are worth 1/3.

Students who attend all lectures have the possibility to undertake a mid-term examination on the first part of the programme and a final examination on the rest of the syllabus.

No oral examinations are admitted.

Teaching tools

Theory will be complemented by tutorials to be added to the ordinary time schedule. 

Office hours

See the website of Nadia Burani