Advanced Microeconomics
A.Y. 2018/2019
Learning objectives
The course is designed to provide a rigorous introduction to the conceptual apparatus of modern microeconomics. Its objective is to equip first-year students with the basic analytical tools required to read and understand contemporary literature in theoretical and applied microeconomics and possibly to approach more advanced research topics in this area.
Expected learning outcomes
By attending this course, the students: 1) will obtain a thorough knowledge of the foundations of modern microeconomic analysis; 2) will learn how to interpret and explain a number of economic phenomena central to contemporary market economies; 3) will acquire advanced skills enabling them to apply the relevant methodology, analytical tools, and theoretical apparatus of modern microeconomics to the solution of a number of economic problems (concerning consumers¿ and producers¿ choices, price formation, economic efficiency, and social welfare).
Lesson period: First semester
Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Single course
This course cannot be attended as a single course. Please check our list of single courses to find the ones available for enrolment.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Lesson period
First semester
Course syllabus
Unit 1 Consumers and producers 1. Individual decision making: An introduction- Market economies: commodities and prices 2. Consumer choice theory- Preferences and utility- Utility maximization and expenditure minimization 3. Demand theory- Individual demand functions: Walrasian and Hicksian- The Slutsky equation: wealth and substitution effects - Aggregation 4. Producer choice theory- Technology: production sets, transformation functions, production functions- Profit maximization and cost minimization 5. Supply theory- Individual supply functions Cost and supply in the single-output case- Aggregation Unit 2 Competitive equilibrium and Pareto optimality 6. Competitive equilibrium and Pareto optimality: An introduction 7. General equilibrium theory: some examples- The Edgeworth Box economy- The Robinson Crusoe economy 8. General equilibrium of a market economy with excess demand functions 9. General equilibrium theory and welfare economics- The two Fundamental Theorems of Welfare Economics- Pareto optimality and social welfare optima 10. First-order conditions for equilibrium and optimality Unit 3 Some applications: welfare evaluation, market failures, market power 11. Welfare evaluation in the partial equilibrium model 12. Externalities 13. Public goods 14. Second-best solutions 15. Monopoly pricing
Teaching methods
Mas-Colell A., M.D. Whinston and J.R. Green, Microeconomic Theory, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1995. Chapters 1.A-B; 2; 3.A-E, G, and I; 4.A-B; 5; 10; 11; 12.A-B; 15; 16.A-F; Mathematical Appendix: M.A-M.F., M.J-M.L.Varian Hal. R., Microeconomic Analysis, Third Edition, W. W. Norton & Company, New York ¿ London, 1992. Chapters 1-5, 7-10, 13-14, 17-18.
SECS-P/01 - ECONOMICS - University credits: 8
Practicals: 32 hours
Lessons: 48 hours
Lessons: 48 hours
Professor:
Donzelli Franco