Microeconomic Theory
|ECON E-1010 |
|Microeconomic Theory Spring, 2013 |
Course Web Site: http://isites.harvard.edu/course/ext-23285/2013/spring
Professor: Bruce Watson econe1010@dce.harvard.edu
Lectures: Mondays 7:40 – 9:40 Science Center A
Teaching Assistants: Teo Nicolais (For distance students) teo.the.ta@gmail.com Sections (On-line) at http://chat.dce.harvard.edu: To Be Announced
Jodi Beggs (For in-class students) jodi@post.harvard.edu Sections: Tuesdays 6:30-8:00 (EST) Location TBA Office Hours: Mondays and Tuesdays, 8:00 – 9:30 (EST) Location TBA
SYLLABUS
This course presents the basic analytical tools of microeconomics, building on the concepts and intuition that students will have derived from their micro principles courses.
We start by looking at the decision making of individual consumers and ask how consumers (or decision-makers generally) optimize subject to constraints. Decision-making in situations involving an uncertain outcome is then analyzed. This analysis has multiple applications, and we will consider two: Insurance, and asset markets.
Then we look at the ways firms make and coordinate their decisions under varying market structures, including perfect competition, monopoly, monopolistic competition and oligopoly. We examine strategic behavior in oligopolistic markets making use of concepts from game theory, such as dominant strategies and Nash equilibrium.
We next investigate factor markets, analyzing labor supply and demand, capital supply and demand, and finally, how firms decide what combination of labor and capital to use in order to produce a given level of output.
A lecture is then devoted to welfare theory—the analysis of how various policies contribute or detract
|Microeconomic Theory Spring, 2013 |
Course Web Site: http://isites.harvard.edu/course/ext-23285/2013/spring
Professor: Bruce Watson econe1010@dce.harvard.edu
Lectures: Mondays 7:40 – 9:40 Science Center A
Teaching Assistants: Teo Nicolais (For distance students) teo.the.ta@gmail.com Sections (On-line) at http://chat.dce.harvard.edu: To Be Announced
Jodi Beggs (For in-class students) jodi@post.harvard.edu Sections: Tuesdays 6:30-8:00 (EST) Location TBA Office Hours: Mondays and Tuesdays, 8:00 – 9:30 (EST) Location TBA
SYLLABUS
This course presents the basic analytical tools of microeconomics, building on the concepts and intuition that students will have derived from their micro principles courses.
We start by looking at the decision making of individual consumers and ask how consumers (or decision-makers generally) optimize subject to constraints. Decision-making in situations involving an uncertain outcome is then analyzed. This analysis has multiple applications, and we will consider two: Insurance, and asset markets.
Then we look at the ways firms make and coordinate their decisions under varying market structures, including perfect competition, monopoly, monopolistic competition and oligopoly. We examine strategic behavior in oligopolistic markets making use of concepts from game theory, such as dominant strategies and Nash equilibrium.
We next investigate factor markets, analyzing labor supply and demand, capital supply and demand, and finally, how firms decide what combination of labor and capital to use in order to produce a given level of output.
A lecture is then devoted to welfare theory—the analysis of how various policies contribute or detract