363-0515-00L Decisions and Markets
| Semester | Spring Semester 2021 |
| Lecturers | A. Bommier |
| Periodicity | yearly recurring course |
| Language of instruction | English |
Courses
| Number | Title | Hours | Lecturers | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 363-0515-00 V | Decisions and Markets The lecture takes place ONLINE via Zoom (not recorded). The lecturers will communicate the exact lesson times of ONLINE courses. | 2 hrs |
| A. Bommier |
Catalogue data
| Abstract | This course provides an introduction to microeconomics. The course emphasizes the conceptual foundations of microeconomics and contains concrete examples of their application. |
| Objective | The purpose of this course is to provide master students with an introduction to graduate-level microeconomics, particularly for students considering further graduate work in economics, business administration or management science. The course provides the fundamental concepts and tools for graduate courses in economics offered at ETH and UZH. After completing this course: - Students will be able to understand and use existing models to make predictions of consumer and firm behavior. - Students understand the fundamental welfare theorems and will be able to analyze equilibria of markets with perfect and imperfect competition. - Students will be able to analyze under which conditions market allocations are not efficient (market failure). |
| Content | Microeconomics is the branch of economics which studies the decision-making by an individual, household, firm, industry or level of government. The economic equilibrium is the result of agents' interactions. Microeconomics is an element of nearly every subfield in economic analysis today. This course introduces the fundamental frameworks which form the basis of many economic models. Theory of the consumer: - Consumer preferences and utility - Budget sets and optimal choice - Demand functions - Labor supply and intertemporal choice - Welfare economics Theory of the producer: - Technological constraints and the production function - Cost minimization - Profit maximization Market structure: - Perfectly competitive markets - Monopoly behavior - Duopoly behavior General equilibrium analysis: - Market equilibrium in an exchange economy |
| Lecture notes | The lecture will be based on lecture slides, which will be made available on Moodle. |
| Literature | The course is mostly based on the textbook by R. Serrano and A. Feldman: "A Short Course in Intermediate Microeconomics with Calculus" (Cambridge University Press, 2013). Another textbook of interest is "Intermediate Microeconomics: A Modern Approach" by H. Varian (Norton, 2014). Exercises are available in the textbook by R. Serrano and A. Feldman ("A Short Course in Intermediate Microeconomics with Calculus", Cambridge University Press, 2013). More exercises can be found in the book "Workouts in Intermediate Microeconomics" by T. Bergstrom and H. Varian (Norton, 2010). |
| Prerequisites / Notice | The course is open to students who have completed an undergraduate course in economics principles and an undergraduate course in multivariate calculus. |
Performance assessment
| Performance assessment information (valid until the course unit is held again) | |
Performance assessment as a semester course | |
| ECTS credits | 3 credits |
| Examiners | A. Bommier |
| Type | end-of-semester examination |
| Language of examination | English |
| Repetition | A repetition date will be offered in the first two weeks of the semester immediately consecutive. |
| Additional information on mode of examination | Students can obtain a bonus of up to 0.25 grade points for their final grade by completing learning tasks: 12 non-mandatory weekly learning tasks. Completing at least 80% of the weekly tasks contributes +0.25 grade points to the final course grade. |
Learning materials
| No public learning materials available. | |
| Only public learning materials are listed. |
Groups
| No information on groups available. |
Restrictions
| There are no additional restrictions for the registration. |
Offered in
| Programme | Section | Type | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Management, Technology and Economics Master | Micro and Macroeconomics | W+ |  |
| MAS in Management, Technology, and Economics | Micro and Macroeconomics | W+ | |
| Mathematics Master | Economics | W | |