09446 - Microeconomics

Learning outcomes

The aim of the course is to give the main elements of the microeconomic analysis of the functioning of a market economy; due attention will be paid, therefore, on the analysis of the behaviour of economic agents (consumers, firms, the state) and on the consequences of their interactions in terms of equilibrium analysis and the properties of the resulting configurations.

Course contents

1)      Equilibrium analysis of the market and comparative statics: economic efficiency and welfare.

2)      Game theory and strategic behaviour: the notion of non cooperative equilibrium.

3)      Demand theory and the model of consumer behaviour.

a)      Rational choice and consumer's decisions.

b)      Consumer's choices and comparative statics: demand, prices and welfare.

c)      The model of consumer behaviour and saving decisions: the model of intertemporal choices of the consumer.

d)      The model of consumer choices in situations of risk and uncertainty.

4)      Production decisions and the firm.

a)      Technology and the cost curves of the firm.

b)      The firm and the product market.

5)      Market mechanism and efficiency: the competitive model of the market.

a)       Perfect competition and market equilibrium; short run vs long run equilibrium of the competitive market.

b)      Economic efficiency and market equilibrium.

c)      Economic efficiency and market equilibrium with asymmetric information.

d)      Economic efficiency and market equilibrium with externalities and public goods.

6)      Non competitive markets, firms'strategies and efficiency.

a)      Monopoly power and barriers to entry.

b)      Monopolistic competition and product differentiation.

c)      Oligopolisitc markets and firms'competition: prices and quantities strategies.

d)      Oligopolisitc markets and firms'competition: non prices strategies.

e)      Competition, regulation and welfare.

7)      Welfare economics and social choice theory.

a)      The fundamental theorems of welfare economics and the paretian principle.

b)      Social choice theory and the aggregation of preferences: some aspects.

c)      Alternative approaches to the problem of distributive justice.

Readings/Bibliography

G. Ecchia-G. Gozzi, Mercati, strategie ed istituzioni. Elementi di microeconomia, Il Mulino 2002.

E. Carbonara, Mercati, strategie e istituzioni. Esercizi di microeconomia, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2002.

Assessment methods

Written examination.

Office hours

See the website of Giancarlo Gozzi