Universitat Internacional de Catalunya - Barcelona

Microeconomics 2

• code 08272
• course 2
• term Semester 1
• type OB
• credits 3

Main language of instruction: Catalan

Other languages of instruction: English

If the student is enrolled for the English track then classes for that subject will be taught in the same language.

Head instructor

Dr. David TANGANELLI - databer@uic.es
Dra. Irene SANCHEZ - isanchez@uic.es

Office hours

Wednesdays 12:00-13:00 or Thursdays 15:00-16:00. Location: Edifici Terré, D-D001. Important: please send an email in advance in order to confirm your meeting with the teacher (isanchez@uic.es).

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 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, governmental economic policies that affect firms’ management and, in general, to understand the functioning of a modern economy.

• This course uses mathematical techniques you should be familiar with: first and second degree equations; derivatives and partial derivatives.
• To know English language to be able to follow the lectures and understand part of the didactic material you will receive.

The purpose of this course is to familiarize students with the analysis of business decisions and evaluating the performance of different markets and the economy as a whole.

To learn the basic microeconomic tools to study various models of economic theory. The focus of the course is designed so that students learn to think like economists in explaining events and different economic and business decisions.

• 21 - To be familiar with the main theories in the fields of microeconomics and macroeconomics.
• 23 - To be familiar with and know how to use microeconomic and macroeconomic analysis terminology.
• 13 - To be familiar with and understand the terms and processes of company management.
• 22 - To be able to identify the nature and behaviour of producers, consumers and investors.
• 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.

 After this course you will be able to:

• Understand how individuals and firms behave and interact in the market.
• Understand the market structure, the perfect competition setting and deviations from it.
• Understand strategic behaviours of firms and consumers.
• Acquire good mathematical skills, interpret basic microeconomic graphs and curves and give economic meaning to them using the appropriate terminology.
• Solve exercises and problems independently, acquiring a good understanding and with economic reasoning.

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 5.1. Two-player game: Nash Equilibrium.

                Lesson 5.2. Simultaneous and Sequential games.

                Lesson 5.3. Strategies.

Lesson 7: Asymmetric information

Chapter 0 a
      0.1 a
      0.2 a
      0.3 a

Chapter 0 a
      Material
            a competenciaperfecta.pdf 
            a mic2lecturescompetenciaperfecta.pdf 
            a testcompetenciaperfecta.pdf 
      0.1 a
      0.2 a
      0.3 a

Chapter 1 a
      Material
            a casaplicaciomicoeconomia.pdf 
      1.1 a
      1.2 a
      1.3 a
      1.4 a

Chapter 2 a
      Material
            a mic2casdiscriminaciopreus.pdf 
            a exemplemonopolinatural.pdf 
            a mic2exercicisclasse.pdf 
            a testsmonopoli.pdf 
      2.1 a
      2.2 a
      2.3 a
      2.4 a
      2.5 a
      2.6 a
      2.7 a

Chapter 3 a
      Material
            a lecturescompetenciaimperfecta.pdf 
            a lecturescompetenciamonopolistica_1.pdf 
            a lecturescompetenciamonopolisica_2.pdf 
            a testcompmpioligopolis.pdf 
      3.1 a
      3.2 a

Chapter 4 a
      Material
            a casmercatcontestable.pdf 
      4.1 a
      4.2 a
      4.3 a
      4.4 a

Chapter 5 a
      5.1 a
      5.2 a
      5.3 a

Chapter 6 a
      6.1 a
      6.2 a
      6.3 a
      6.4 a

Microeconomics, as all disciplines of economic theory, are learned gradually. Its study is based on understanding and developing analytical skills, rather than memorize concepts. Experience 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 encourages the continued study.

Teaching activities

• Class every Wednesday at 10am. Please, be punctual. If you arrive after 10:10 am you won’t be able to enter into class.
• Main bibliography: Varian (2009), and Pindyck & Rubinfeld (2001).

Learning activities

• Resolution of exercises in class.
• Graphic analysis and numerical calculations.
• Class participation.
• Homework to be delivered to the teacher for marking. You will find each homework in your Moodle at the appropriate time. The teacher will let you know once each of them is uploaded, as well as the time and date you will need to hand them in.

• Continuous assessment (40% of the mark) made of:
  • 30% homework: You will have 3 main homework to do along the course. You should hand each homework at a particular date and time indicated by the teacher. If homework is delivered outside this time window it won’t be evaluated nor accepted, unless the absence or delay is justified with a reasonable and justified reason (for health issues you will need an official medical justification paper).
  • 10% class participation and adequate behaviour in class.
•  Final exam (60% 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. This is, the continuous assessment will NOT be taken into account.
  • According with the internal rules of the Faculty, the maximum grade you could 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 must 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 is adding to more than a 5).

** COMPULSORY ASSISTANCE: In order to attend any exam (final or re-sit exam) you need to attend more than 80% of classes. If you miss more than 4 classes, then you will not be allowed to attend the exam. In this subject the professor 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 professor and let her know (isanchez@uic.es).

• Varian, H. (2009). Intermediate Microeconomics: A Modern Approach. W. W. Norton & Company
• Pindyck, R. & Rubinfeld, D. (2001). Microeconomics. Ed. Prentice-Hall
• Frank, R. (2008), Microeconomics and behavior. McGraw-Hill Irwin
• Snyder, C. & Nicholson, W. (2012). Microeconomic theory, Cengage Learning

E: exam date | R: revision date | 1: first session | 2: second session:

• E1 16/01/2019 10:00h b501
• E2 25/06/2019 15:00h b501