Teaching code

4S00239

Teacher

Giam Pietro Cipriani

Coordinator

Giam Pietro Cipriani

Credits

9

Language

Italian

Scientific Disciplinary Sector (SSD)

SECS-P/01 - ECONOMICS

Period

Primo semestre L dal Sep 23, 2024 al Jan 10, 2025.

Courses Single

Authorized

Lessons timetable Moodle Seminars 0

Learning objectives

This unit should enable students to understand how firms and consumers take their decisions and how markets are organized. Recent developments in economic theory, useful to prepare students for applied economic courses, will also be presented. The teaching methods adopted consist of lectures and exercise classes. By the end of this course, students will know how to apply the toolbox of microeconomics to analyze markets and consumers’ and firms’ behavior.

Prerequisites and basic notions

There is no mandatory requirement. However, knowledge of basic mathematical concepts is required.

Program

Consumer choice
Production and costs
Perfect competition
Monopoly
Imperfect competition and strategic behaviour
General economic equilibrium
Decision-making with risk
Asymmetric information
Textbooks
either
H.R. Varian, Intermediate Microeconomics: A Modern Approach
or
D.A. Besanko & R.R. Braeutigam, Microeconomics
Exercises can be found in many textbooks. An Italian textbook is: G.P. Cipriani & T. Fioroni, Esercizi di Microeconomia, Giappichelli, 2020.

Bibliography

Didactic methods

There will be a total of 56 hours dedicated to lessons and an additional 24 hours allocated for practice sessions. Furthermore, we will be organizing tutoring sessions to provide students with guidance and support in completing their exercises. All presentation slides utilized during the classes, teaching materials employed in the exercises and tutoring, along with links to any recorded lessons, will be made available on the university's e-learning platform. Moreover, students will have the opportunity to actively engage by completing and submitting exercises directly through the e-learning platform.

Learning assessment procedures

The exam methods are identical for attending, non-attending and Erasmus students. The final exam is exclusively in written form and consists of exercises and theory questions also formulated through a multiple choice test. The test aims to verify knowledge of the different topics of the program, while the exercises aim to verify the methodological application of the knowledge acquired. In the evaluation of the multiple choice test, a negative score is assigned for each incorrect answer which makes the expected score null and void in the case of random answers. The exam is considered not passed if the test grade is less than 10/30. If it is higher than 10/30, the test grade is worth 30% of the test grade and the grade of the exercises and any open questions the remaining 70%. Students who attend the course will have the opportunity to access the intermediate test. Those who pass the intermediate test will be able to complete the examination with an exam that will only focus on the second part in the first session of the winter session. Furthermore, during the lessons and exercises, further exercises may be proposed to be carried out in the classroom or at home and these will also be taken into account for the attribution of any bonus points.

Evaluation criteria

In the multiple choice test the wrong answers are penalized and a null score is given for those not given. The penalty is such that the expected score from random answers is null. In the exercises carried out, the correctness of the procedure and the accuracy of the explanations (when requested) are also assessed.

Criteria for the composition of the final grade

Intermediate and final written test: 30% multiple choice tests and 70% exercises. Final grade: simple arithmetic mean of the two exams. Any additional bonus points for exercises carried out during the course.

Exam language

Italiano