09446 - Microeconomics (A-E)

Academic Year 2019/2020

  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in Political, Social and International Sciences (cod. 8853)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course the students will: - master the basic tools for the study of the behaviour of the main economic agents (consumers, firms, government) and of their interactions in the markets. - know the basic theoretical instruments for the understanding of the redistributive effects of public policies, with particular reference to the Italian case.

Course contents

INTRODUCTION (First week)

  • Basic concepts
  • Demand and supply


PART I: Consumption and production choices (Weeks 2-5)

  • Consumption theory
  • Consumer behaviour
  • Individual and market demand
  • The theory of the firm
  • Technology and production
  • Production costs
  • Big data (I): inequality and social mobility

PARTE II: Market structure (Weeks 6-9)

  • Perfect competition
    Profit maximization and competitive supply
  • Analysis of perfectly competitive markets
  • Monopoly
  • Oligopoly

 

PART III: Behavioral economics and empirical evidence (Weeks 9-10)

  • Behavioral economcis
  • Big data (II): tba

Readings/Bibliography

Pindyck R.S. e D.L. Rubinfeld (2018), Microeconomia, Pearson – Prentice Hall, IX edizione, Edizione Custom.

 

For further information about the course, please check this website: https://sites.google.com/site/stefaniabortolotti/teaching

Teaching methods

Lectures and exercises, complemented by supporting material. Interactive tools and market simulations will be used during the lectures to foster the understanding of the phenomena under study.

Attendance of both lectures and exercises is strongly recommended. 

Assessment methods

Written exam structured around three parts: multiple choice questions, theoretical questions, and exercises. 

NO oral exam.

During the semester, students will be able to take two partial exams (the final grade is the average of the two partials).

No additional partial exams will be scheduled during the academic year.

Teaching tools

A total of 60h of frontal lectures and 20h of exercises. 

Slides, the material for the exercises, and other material will be made available online on the personal webpage of the instructor: https://sites.google.com/site/stefaniabortolotti/teaching

Both the book and the additional material are compulsory for the preparation of the exam.

Office hour (only by appointment): Wed from 11.15 am to 12.15 pm. Please write an email to the instructor at least 24h before.  

Office hours

See the website of Stefania Bortolotti