This course cannot be followed by students economics and business economics (U.S.E.). It cannot be combined with 'Microeconomics, Institutions and Welfare' (ECB1MI).
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
All meetings are combinations of lectures and 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 80% of the tutorials.
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