This course is:

• Elective in Bachelor Programme in Law and in other non-economic Bachelor programmes;
• Other economic elective;
• Introductory course for Minor Economics for non-economics students;
• Required in most Economics Premaster Programmes. 

Content 
When will a manager of a firm decide to expand production? What will induce a larger increase in the demand for education: a voucher system, a matching grant or a non-matching grant? What are the costs for the government when it supports the farmers with a per unit subsidy and is such a subsidy socially efficient? Why did the former Netherlands Competition Authority (NMA) prescribe KPN Telecom to set higher prices? When does it make sense for a firm to introduce a variable-wage payment scheme? Such questions will be treated in this course.

The course is especially designed for non-economics students, whether they want to follow just a single economics course, whether they want to have a firm basis in microeconomics to be able to follow further elective courses in economics, whether they want to do the course as part of a minor in Economics, whether they want to study law & economics, i.e. the economic analysis of law, or whether they want to prepare to participate in a Master Programme in Economics. 
 
Learning objectives 
At the end of the course the student is able to:

• Reason in terms of scarcity, relative prices, income and substitution effects, demand and supply, markets and market imperfections, including in situations where uncertainty, interacting actors and asymmetric information play a role;
• Recognise microeconomic aspects in social problems and to analyse these aspects with a modelling approach (graphically as well as algebraically);
• To analyse social problems by applying methodological individualism.

Format 
Lectures/tutorials.
 
Assessment method

• Mid-term examination (40% of the final grade);
• End-term examination (60% of the final grade).

The examinations are closed book exams consisting of open questions. 

Effort requirements 
Adequate preparation of, and active participation in the tutorials. Those who fail to meet this requirement at five or more of the thirteen meetings are considered not to have met the effort requirement. Being absent from a tutorial is equivalent to not having met the requirement of adequate preparation of and active participation in that tutorial. So, with respect to the effort requirement you may miss four times; this is to allow for illness, family circumstances, and other special situations and coincidences. 

Prerequisite knowledge 
Secondary school mastery of elementary calculus is assumed.

Entry requirements
You cannot be enrolled only in the following programmes:

• Economics and Business Economics
• Economie en Bedrijfseconomie