37293 - MICROECONOMICS

Conoscenze e abilità da conseguire

At the end of the course students with understands of the principles of micro-economic analysis. They have been introduced the concept of economic rationality as it applies to individuals and firms, and the analysis of how price and quantity are set under different market structures. Moreover students are introduced to topics addressed in more detail will include the form of utility and production functions, and rational decision making and intertemporal choice in the face of uncertainty. Implications for the behaviour and organization of firms will be highlighted throughout.

Contenuti

Course contents

Note 1: the course is in English

Note 2: the content of this course differs drastically from previous years. The material on the exam in September 2024 will reflect previous year course materials. After the September 2024 exam, all future exams will be based on the new course content.

Unit 1: Prosperity, inequality and planetary limits

We take a broad view of economics to understand its role in shaping our current global environment.

Unit 2: Technology and Incentives

We will develop the building blocks of production, which is the main activity of the firm and study the role of technological innovation in driving economic growth. This will form the basis of the “supply” side of the market.

Unit 3: Scarcity, wellbeing and working hours

We will develop the building blocks of individual decision-making and how individuals make trade-offs between consumption and leisure. This will build the basis of the “demand” side of the market.

Unit 4: Strategic interactions and social dilemmas

We will introduce concepts from “game theory” to understand how individuals interact and study the emergence and resolution of various social dilemmas.

Unit 5: The rules of the game: what gets what and why

We will study how institutions, which form the “rules” of an economic system, shape economic outcomes. We will discuss issues of fairness and efficiency.

Unit 6: The firm and its employees

We will study the structure of the firm and the interaction of firms and employees.

Unit 7: The firm and its customers

We will study how the firm interacts with customers and how the structure of the market affects the relationship between firms and customers. We will introduce ideas of profit maximization, perfect competition and monopoly.

Unit 8: Supply and demand: markets with many buyers and sellers

We will bring together the supply and demand side of the markets to understand how markets work in a competitive equilibrium. We will also discuss the shortcomings of studying markets using the assumptions of perfect competition.

Unit 9: Skip

Unit 10: Market successes and failures

We will delve more deeply into the notion that markets are not always perfectly competitive and study what happens when there is a market failure.

The first mid-term exam will units 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5; the second mid-term exam will cover units 6, 7, 8, and 10.

Full exams can cover material from any of the nine units.

Testi/Bibliografia

The textbook for the course will be:

The CORE Econ Team 2023 The Economy 2.0: Microeconomics Open access e-text https://core-econ.org/the-economy/ .

You can access the textbook for free here: https://core-econ.org/the-economy/

It is strongly recommended that students make use of the textbook.

Teaching materials (e.g., slides, notes, exercises) will be published on the university platform VIRTUALE: https://virtuale.unibo.it/

Metodi didattici

Traditional lectures led by the course lecturers.

Lessons to work through exercises led by course lecturers or tutor.

Modalità di verifica e valutazione dell'apprendimento

Final written exam of about one and a half or two hours, or two mid-term exams of about one and a half or two hours each.

The content and structure of the exam questions is intended to assess familiarity with the material covered in the course lectures and to assess understanding of the theoretical content of the course. The nature of the exam questions will closely follow examples covered as exercises during the course and discussed in lectures/tutorials.

Both mid-term and full exam will be based on multiple-choice questions aimed at assessing students’ ability to solve exercises and their understanding of the theoretical content of the course.

During exams students will NOT be allowed to use anything but a pen, pencil, and eraser. That is, students will NOT be allowed to bring materials such as: textbooks, lecture notes/slides; any written notes; web-enabled or data storage devices, or smartphones. Candidates found with such items will be removed from the exam and their work will not be graded.

Note: Only students with a sufficiently high grade in the first mid-term exam (i.e., 18 or higher) will be admitted to the second one: other candidates must proceed to the full exams.

For students taking the mid-term exams (esami parziali), the final grade for the course will be the arithmetic average of the grades in the two mid-term exams (with 30 cum laude on a given mid-term counting as 31).

For students taking the full exam, the grade of the exam is the final grade.

There will be only one opportunity to take the first mid-term, in October. The second mid-term can instead be taken EITHER in December OR in January, on the same dates of the full exam. That is, if a student takes the second mid-term in December, she cannot take the second mid-term again in January; instead, she will have to take the full exam (in January or in September).

The exam grading system is on a 0-30 scale. The maximum possible score is 30 cum laude, in case all answers are correct, complete, and formally rigorous. If that is not the case, the following grading scheme applies:

<18 fail
18-23 sufficient
24-27 good
28-30 very good
30 cum laude: excellent

To take the exam, candidates are required to register via the University’s electronic service (AlmaEsami). Students who fail to register for an exam on AlmaEsami will NOT be allowed to take the exam. Exam grades will be published via the University's electronic service (EOL).

After exams are graded, students will have the chance to see their graded exam on a date/time/location determined by the lecturers and communicated (via VIRTUALE) to the students.

Students will be allowed to reject their final grade for the course at most ONCE. Upon publishing the exam results, the lecturers will inform students about the deadline to reject their grade. Notification of the intention to reject a grade must be sent in writing (by email). After the date specified, grades will be electronically registered (verbalizzato).

Strumenti a supporto della didattica

Slides and sample exercises will be available on the platform VIRTUALE: https://virtuale.unibo.it/

Orario di ricevimento

Consulta il sito web di Stephanie Heger