 |
| Detailinformationen |
| Quellcurriculum |
Masterstudium Economics (Economic Policy Analysis) 2025W |
| Lernergebnisse |
Kompetenzen |
| (*)Students are trained in modern microeconomic methods that enable them to understand consumer behavior, its implications for market outcomes, and the scope for market interventions.
Course Goals:
The course provides an overview of modern microeconomic theory with the goal of enabling students to describe, analyze, predict, and evaluate consumer decision-making and the resulting market outcomes in a variety of settings. After a comprehensive treatment of classical preference-based consumer theory and its welfare implications under perfect competition and monopoly, students are acquainted with the fundamentals of decision-making under risk, consumer risk preferences, and the insurance market. In addition, students are familiarized with general equilibrium analysis in the context of exchange economies, with the inefficiencies caused – and ways to mitigate them – in the presence of negative consumption externalities and asymmetric information, and with the basics of auction theory.
|
|
| Fertigkeiten |
Kenntnisse |
| (*)Students can explain the core elements of consumer theory and market analysis in modern microeconomics. Using constrained optimization techniques and expected utility theory, they can predict consumer behavior within the theoretical framework laid out. They understand how price and income changes as well as different risk attitudes affect market behavior and outcomes. They can assess inefficiencies arising from market imperfections and are able to critically evaluate policy measures aimed to address them. They can build and analyze their own simple models of market behavior.
|
(*)Students can recall the basic modeling framework for consumer decision-making under certainty and under risk. They are aware of the properties of demand, how to evaluate market outcomes in terms of consumer surplus and aggregate welfare, the welfare properties under different modes of competition, the impact of risk attitudes, and the problems caused by negative consumption externalities and asymmetric information.
|
|
| Beurteilungskriterien |
(*)A maximum of 100 points can be achieved. The final grade is made up of three pillars: Home assignments (30 points), exercise presentations (20 points), final exam (50 points).
- Home assignments (30 points): In total, there will be about 8 home assignments (4 per lecturer) comprised of several exercises each. Either alone or in groups of two, students are asked to upload the solutions to around 10 exercises (5 per lecturer) on moodle. The exercises have to be uploaded before they are discussed in class (the relevant due dates will be announced). Each exercise gives up to 3 points (shorter exercises may count for less), which will be awarded based on the completeness and validity of the solution. In general, it will not be possible to make up for missed points due to incomplete or erroneous solutions, so students should be careful of what they submit.
- Exercise presentations (20 points): Over the course of the semester, students should present the solutions to two exercises (one per lecturer) on the board. Notes are permissible, but students should be able to verbally explain their solutions (no reading from a script!). Each presentation will be awarded with up to 10 points.
- Final exam (50 points): A final exam (75 minutes) checking students’ understanding of the topics covered in class will take place in the final lecture on January 30, 2025. A substitute exam will take place on February 20, 2025.
Final grades will be given as follows:
| points | grade |
|---|
| 88 - 100 | 1 |
| 75 - 87 | 2 |
| 60 - 74 | 3 |
| 50 - 59 | 4 |
| 0 - 49 | 5 |
|
| Lehrmethoden |
(*)- Presentation of the material by the lecturers, supported by slides and blackboard notes (graphs, derivations, etc.).
- Discussion of the lecture content with students.
- Review questions and short interim tasks, e.g. providing the intuition for a result or giving a proof for specific statements.
- Homework assignments (to be handed in individually or in groups of two).
- Student presentations of homework exercises in class; troubleshooting and discussion.
|
| Abhaltungssprache |
Englisch |
| Literatur |
(*)All slides and homework assignments will be provided on moodle.
As background reading, the course will rely primarily on the following commonly adopted graduate textbook:
- Jehle, G., and Reny, P. “Advanced Microeconomic Theory (Third Edition),” Pearson, 2011.
It is highly recommended that students obtain a copy of this book and work through the relevant sections themselves.
Other useful textbooks include:
- Varian, H. “Microeconomic Analysis (Third Edition),” W. W. Norton & Company, 1992. [A less detailed but still rigorous treatment. Recommended as a complementary source.]
- Mas-Colell, A., Whinston, M., and Green, J. “Microeconomic Theory,” Oxford University Press, 1995. [The impressive standard textbook, even though it is a little technical for our purposes. In any case, it is a very useful source of reference.]
For catching up on microeconomic principles, the following two textbooks are recommendable:
- Varian, H. “Intermediate Microeconomics: A Modern Approach (Eighth Edition),” W. W. Norton & Company, 2010.
- Nicholson, W., and Snyder, C. “Microeconomic Theory: Basic Principles and Extensions (12th Edition),” Cengage Learning, 2017.
|
| Lehrinhalte wechselnd? |
Nein |
|
