Universitat Internacional de Catalunya
Industrial Organisation
Other languages of instruction: Catalan, English,
Teaching staff
By arrangement. Important: please send an email in advance in order to confirm your meeting with the instructor (mflores@uic.es).
Introduction
Microeconomics is the study of individuals, households and firms' behavior in decision making and allocation of scarce resources. It studies how individuals/households make consumption choices, what factors influence their choices and how their decisions affect the markets of goods and services in terms of the prices set by firms, the supply and demand.
Understanding Microeconomic analysis is essential as it provides us with the necessary economic tools to understand and make certain business decisions, develop public economic policies that affect firms’ management and, in general, to understand the functioning of a modern economy.
Pre-course requirements
This course uses mathematical techniques that you should be familiar with: first and second degree equations; derivatives and partial derivatives.
You should be fluent enough in English to be able to follow the lessons and understand the didactic material that you will receive.
Objectives
The purpose of this course is to familiarize students with the analysis of business decisions and with evaluating the performance of different markets and the economy as a whole.
To learn the basic microeconomic tools to be able to understand and use certain models of economic theory.
One of the main goals of this subject is that students learn to "think like economists" and use this reasoning when explaining different economic circumstances and business decisions.
Competences/Learning outcomes of the degree programme
- 13 - To be familiar with and understand the terms and processes of company management.
- 21 - To be familiar with the main theories in the fields of microeconomics and macroeconomics.
- 22 - To be able to identify the nature and behaviour of producers, consumers and investors.
- 23 - To be familiar with and know how to use microeconomic and macroeconomic analysis terminology.
- 24 - To be able to carry out a financial, social and historical analysis of the environment in which a company operates.
- 31 - To develop the ability to identify and interpret numerical data.
- 32 - To acquire problem solving skills based on quantitative and qualitative information.
- 50 - To acquire the ability to relate concepts, analyse and synthesise.
- 53 - To acquire the skills necessary to learn autonomously.
- 58 - To be able to develop self-assessment exercises.
- 60 - To acquire knowledge that promotes respect for other cultures and habits.
Learning outcomes of the subject
After this course you will be able to:
- Understand how individuals and firms behave and interact in the market.
- Distinguish different market structures, that is the perfect competition setting and the deviations from it.
- Understand strategic behaviors of firms and consumers.
- Acquire good mathematical skills, learn how to read and interpete microeconomic graphs using the appropriate terminology.
- Solve exercises and problems independently, acquiring a good understanding and ability in terms of economic reasoning.
Syllabus
Lesson 0: Introduction
Lesson 0.1. Preliminaries.
Lesson 0.2. The bascics of supply and demand.
Lesson 1: Review of Economic theory of the consumer
Lesson 1.1. Consumer budget, preferences, utility, and choice.
Lesson 1.2. Demand.
Lesson 2: Review of Economic theory of the firm.
Lesson 2.1. Cost minimization and Cost curves.
Lesson 2.2. Firm supply and perfect competition.
Lesson 2.3. Industry Supply.
Lesson 3: Monopoly
Lesson 3.1. Definition and characteristics.
Lesson 3.2. Profit maximization of the monopoly.
Lesson 3.3. Inefficiency of the monopoly.
Lesson 3.4. Natural monopoly.
Lesson 3.5. Price discrimination: definition and strategies.
Lesson 4: Monopolistic competition
Lesson 4.1. Characteristics and imperfect competition.
Lesson 4.2. Product differentiation.
Lesson 5: Oligopoly
Lesson 5.1. Characteristics of Oligopolies: how to choose a strategy?
Lesson 5.2. Non-cooperative oligopolies: Cournot, Stackelberg, and Bertrand models.
Lesson 5.3 Cooperative oligopolies: Collusion.
Lesson 6: Game theory
Lesson 6.1. Two-player game: Nash Equilibrium.
Lesson 6.2. Simultaneous and Sequential games.
Lesson 6.3. Strategies.
Lesson 7: Asymmetric information
Teaching and learning activities
In person
Microeconomics, as all subjects of economic theory, is learned gradually. Its study is based on the understanding and development of analytical skills, rather than on the memorization of concepts. Evidence from earlier years shows that students who work consistently get the highest grades and, therefore, the evaluation method adopted in this course takes into account class attendance and participation and encourages the continued study.
Teaching activities
- Classes every Tuesday and Thursday at 10.15 am. Please, be punctual. If you are late you will not be able to enter into class.
- Main bibliography: Pindyck & Rubinfeld (2001), and Varian (2009).
Learning activities
- Resolution of exercises in class.
- Graphicical analysis and numerical calculations.
- Class participation.
- Homeworks to be delivered to the lecturer. You will find each homework in your Moodle at the appropriate time. The lecturer will let you know once each of them is uploaded, as well as the time and date at which you will have to hand them in.
| TRAINING ACTIVITY | COMPETENCES |
|---|---|
| self-appraisal magister class classroom practice (solving problems/videos/text comments/essays) individual study solving problems at classroom | 18 19 20 21 22 23 27 31 50 53 55 58 |
Evaluation systems and criteria
In person
Continuous assessment (40% of the mark):
- Exercises and tests will be collected, in some instances without prior notice (30%). These will have to be handed in at a particular date and time. If they are handed in outside this time window they will not be evaluated nor accepted, unless the absence or delay is justified with a reasonable and provable reason (for health issues you will need an official medical justification paper).
- Participation and adequate behavior in class (10%).
Midterm exam (20% of the mark):
- The partial exam will NOT exempt you from any lectures for the final exam.
Final exam (40% of the mark)*:
- The final exam will cover ALL lectures.
- To pass the course and for the continuous assessment to count, you must get at least a 5 in the final exam. Otherwise, you will need to retake the exam in June
Re-sit exam
- If you fail the main exam, you will need to retake it in June. In this case, the final grade of the subject will depend 100% on the final examination of the re-sit exam. That is, the continuous assessment will NOT be taken into account.
- According with the internal rules of the Faculty, the maximum grade you can get in the re-sit exam is a 7.
Observations:
* To pass the course it is essential to get at least a 5 at the final exam of the subject, otherwise you will go directly to the re-sit exam. If the mark of the final exam is less than 5, the maximum total final mark for the subject will be 4,5 (even if accounting for the continuous assessment would lead to a mark of 5 or above).
** COMPULSORY ASSISTANCE: In order to attend any exam (final or re-sit exam) you need to attend more than 75% of classes. If you miss more than 4 classes, then you will not be allowed to attend the exam. In this course the lecturer does not need to know the justification of your absence but you are only allowed to miss 4 classes. Exceptions occur with students that have professional sport competitions duties. In this case, please contact the lecturer (mflores@uic.es).
Bibliography and resources
PINDYCK, R. & RUBINFELD, D. (2009). Microeconomics. Ed. Prentice-Hall
VARIAN, H. (2009). Intermediate Microeconomics: A Modern Approach. W. W. Norton & Company
FRANK, R. (2008), Microeconomics and behavior. McGraw-Hill Irwin
SNYDER, C. & NICHOLSON, W. (2012). Microeconomic theory, Cengage Learning