040184 UK Mikroökonomie (2024W)

FORMAT (subject to change depending on the situation):
- There will be two in-person lectures each week on Wednesdays 18.30 - 20.00 and Thursdays 18.30 - 20.00.
- There will be one in-person Q&A session each week on Fridays (to be confirmed) to go over the weekly problem set.
- Johannes Hoelzemann will teach the lectures. Teaching assistants will hold the Q&A sessions.
- All course material will be posted on Moodle.

CONTENT: This is an introductory course in microeconomics. In the first part of the course, students are introduced to the benchmark of perfectly competitive markets. In the second part, we explore ways in which actual markets differ from this benchmark such as market power, externalities, public goods, and asymmetric information problems. Throughout we discuss the scope and role of government intervention in markets. This course serves three main purposes:
- to introduce students to basic microeconomic principles;
- to help students understand the business world through the lens of economic models;
- to develop students' skills in critical thinking and comprehension.

Tentative course schedule:

Week 1: What is microeconomics? What is a perfectly competitive market? Why is it a useful but unrealistic benchmark?

Week 2: What determines consumer demand?

Week 3: What determines producer supply?

Week 4: How are quantities and prices determined in equilibrium? How are the gains from competitive market exchanges shared between consumers and producers?

Week 5: Market power and oligopolies.

Week 6: Market power and monopolies (1), how do monopolies choose what price to charge?

MID-TERM TEST: November 14 (Thursday), 18.30 - 20.00 (Hörsäle 1, 6 and 14).

Week 7: Market power and monopolies (2), how should we regulate monopolies?

Week 8: Externalities. How does welfare change in a market where one agent's consumption has a positive or negative impact on others (e.g. pollution)?

Week 9: Public goods and redistribution. Why do markets sometimes lead to underprovision of certain types of goods (e.g. healthcare, defense, education)?

Week 10: Information frictions between consumers and firms (1). How can the lack of information available to consumers lead firms to obtain more market power?

CHRISTMAS BREAK

Week 11: Information frictions between consumers and firms (2). How can the lack of information available to consumers lead to market breakdown?

Week 12: Information frictions within organisations. Do firms' managers always maximise firms' profits?

FINAL EXAM: January 23 (Thursday), 13.15 - 14.45 (Hörsäle 1, 4 and 14).

Die Vorlesung wird in Präsenz und in deutscher Sprache gehalten.

i. Format:
Pro Woche finden zwei Vorlesungen statt, sowie eine Fragerunde zur Besprechung der wöchentlichen Problemsets. Das Kursmaterial wird auf Moodle zur Verfügung gestellt.

ii. Inhalt:
Der Kurs bietet eine Einführung in die Mikroökonomie an. Im ersten Teil der Veranstaltung werden die Studierenden mit dem idealtypischen Modell vollkommener Märkte vertraut gemacht. Im zweiten Teil wird untersucht, wie sich real existierende Märkte von diesem Ideal unterscheiden, z. B. aufgrund von Marktmacht, externen Effekte, öffentlichen Güter und asymmetrischen Informationsproblemen. Abschließend diskutieren wir die Rolle und den Umfang staatlicher Eingriffe in Märkte. Grundlegende mathematische Kenntnisse sind notwendig (insbesondere Algebra, Differenzialrechnung, Optimierung mit Nebenbedingungen).

iii. Ziele:
Die Veranstaltung verfolgt die folgenden Lernziele: (1) Die Einführung in grundlegende mikroökonomische Prinzipien, (2) die Analyse der Wirtschaftswelt mithilfe ökonomischer Modelle, (3) die Entwicklung kritischen Denkens.