Teaching code

4S00239

Academic staff

Simone Quercia, Andrea Xamo

Coordinator

Simone Quercia

Credits

9

Also offered in courses:

• Microeconomics of the course Bachelor's degree in Business Innovation and Economics

Language

Italian

Scientific Disciplinary Sector (SSD)

SECS-P/01 - ECONOMICS

Period

Primo semestre (lauree) dal Sep 19, 2022 al Jan 13, 2023.

Lessons timetable Moodle Seminars 0

Learning objectives

The aim of this unit is to provide students with appropriate tools for understanding how firms and consumers take their decisions and how markets are organized, which are fundamental skills to understand and analyze global markets. Upon completing the course, the student must demonstrate to know the organization of markets and the behavior of firms and consumers within such markets. The course will provide an evidence-based approach to microeconomics, presenting empirical and experimental evidence for each topic covered. Classic microeconomic theory will be compared and integrated with novel approaches regarding behavior of individuals and firms with a particular focus on behavioral economics.

Prerequisites and basic notions

Good knowledge of basic math is required especially with respect to derivatives and integrals.

Program

Textbook: "Microeconomia" by Hal R. Varian, Cafoscarina, 2011.
Additional material is available on the e-learning website.
A. Consumer Theory:
• Budget constraint (Varian, Chapter 2).
• Preferences and indifference curves (Varian, Chapter 3).
• Utility (Varian, Chapter 4).
• Choice (Varian, Chapter 5).
• Demand (Varian, Chapter 6).
• Revealed preferences (Varian, Chapter 7).
• Slutsky equation (Varian, Chapter 8).
• Exchange (Varian, Chapter 9).
• Intertemporal choice (Varian, Chapter 10).
• Choice under uncertainty (Varian, Chapter 12).
• Consumer's Surplus (Varian, Chapter 14).
• Market demand and elasticity (Varian, Chapter 15).
• Equilibrium (Varian, Chapter 16).
B. Production Theory:
• Technology (Varian, Chapter 18).
• Profit maximization (Varian, Chapter 19).
• Cost minimization (Varian, Chapter 20).
• Cost Curves (Varian, Chapter 21).
• Perfect competition in the short and the long term (Varian, Chapters 22 and 23).
• Monopoly (Varian, Chapter 24).
• Monopolistic behaviour (Varian, Chapter 25).
• Oligopoly (Varian, Chapter 27).
C. Game theory
• Game theory (Varian, Cap. 28)
• Game theory applications (Varian, Cap. 29)

Bibliography

Didactic methods

There will be 6 hours per week of lectures and 2 hours per week of tutorials. Lectures will be recorded on Panopto.

Learning assessment procedures

All exams will be in written form. There will be an intermediate exam.

Evaluation criteria

The intermediate exam and the final exam have the same structure. They are composed by a multiple-choice part and an exercise part. The final grade will be the average between the grades of the two parts. The whole exam lasts 90 minutes.
Multiple choice
- The test is composed of 15 questions, 8 theory questions and 7 short exercises.
- +2 points per correct answer, 0 points for each unanswered question or wrong answer.
- In this part, it is necessary to accumulate at least 16 points; if you do not reach 16 points in this part the exam is failed.
Exercise part
- This part is composed of one exercise which needs to be solved on a sheet which must be handed in. We will evaluate both the correctness of the response and how the exercise was solved.

Criteria for the composition of the final grade

If you pass the intermediate exam with at least 18, the final exam will only be on thesecond part of the course contents. The final grade is the average between the intermediate and final exam. If you do not pass the intermediate exam, the final exam will be on the whole course contents.

Exam language

Italiano