This course will be concerned with fundamental and applied aspects of microeconomic theory. The aim is to further develop and build upon the microeconomics considered in the first year. This will involve introducing new microeconomic concepts and returning to concepts with which students should be familiar from the first year, but examining them in greater depth. The course will examine some modern approaches to microeconomic analysis by addressing aspects of game theory. In particular, major concern will lie with the application of game theoretic models to issues in modern industrial organisation. Finally, the course will return to welfare economics and develop a general equilibrium model of the economy and employ it to analyse the issue of Pareto efficiency. Course Objectives :The aim of this course is to develop the basic tools of microeconomic analysis learned in first year. Additionally, at the end of this course students should be able to:
On completion of the module, students should be able to:(i) Understand and apply basic microeconomic principles to the economic decisions of households and firms under a variety of market conditions;(ii) Use these principles both to describe and to appraise these decisions, and should be competent in the verbal, diagrammatic and basic mathematical concepts and techniques used in introductory microeconomics;(iii) Understand the techniques of analysis which are appropriate to intermediate microeconomics and have enhanced their ability to reason logically and accurately;(iv) Appreciate how standard economic techniques can offer insights into various issues;(v) Translate economic ideas into equation or numerical examples and calculate quantitative answers to economic problems.