Overview
Theory of markets and prices: decision‐making by individuals and firms, equilibrium conditions under various market structures, and issues of individual and social welfare. This course presumes a knowledge of calculus at the first‐year university level.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:
- Explain what market demand and market supply represent, and derive both mathematical functions by formulating and solving constrained optimization problems.
- Explain what market equilibrium represents in the case of many price-taking consumers and suppliers, and calculate market equilibrium with taxes, subsidies, and quotas, or without any such policies.
- Express and analyze strategic decision making in decision trees and payoff matrices using game theory. Explain, model, and solve the strategic decisions of monopolists and oligopolists.
- Model real-life consumption and supply decisions using consumer and producer theory, and constructively peer-review such models.