Principles of Microeconomics Course Descriptor

Course Overview

Principles of Microeconomics is an introductory course that teaches the fundamentals of microeconomics, providing a solid foundation for thinking in the logical and structured way common to all trained economists. Microeconomics analyses how people and firms make choices within an institutional environment. Therefore, this course will introduce students to  a framework for learning about consumer behaviour and analysing consumer decisions, as well as firms and their decisions about optimal production. Market imperfections, such as monopolies or externalities, and the role of institutions in correcting these imperfections will also be discussed.

In this course students will learn how to think like an economist through a range of examples from various historical and cultural perspectives. They will acquire the necessary graphical and analytical skills that will enable them to successfully evaluate core microeconomic frameworks applied to local and global events. By the end of the course, students will be able to understand and explain introductory microeconomic theory, solve basic microeconomic problems, and use these techniques to think about policy questions relevant to the operation of the real economy. Students will acquire the ability to provide informed opinions on microeconomic theories relating to household and firm behaviour within a wider context, and will have a basic understanding of situations when government intervention in the economy might be desirable.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding

Subject Specific Skills

Transferable and Employability Skills

Teaching and Learning

This course has a dedicated Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) page with a syllabus and range of additional resources (e.g. readings, question prompts, tasks, assignment briefs, discussion boards) to orientate and engage students in their studies.

The scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course are:

Lectures and seminars

40 scheduled hours – typically including induction, consolidation or revision, and assessment activity hours.

• Version 1:all sessions in the same sized group

OR

• Version 2: most of the sessions in larger groups; some of the sessions in smaller groups

Faculty hold regular ‘office hours’, which are opportunities for students to drop in or sign up to explore ideas, raise questions, or seek targeted guidance or feedback, individually or in small groups. 

Students are to attend and participate in all the scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course and to manage their directed learning and independent study.

Dedicated mathematics support will be available to all students during teaching weeks.

Indicative total learning hours for this course: 150

Assessment

Both formative and summative assessment are used as part of this course, with purely formative opportunities typically embedded within interactive teaching sessions, office hours, and/or the VLE.

Summative Assessments

Indicative Content of the Set Exercises: consist of a series of short set exercises distributed across the course. Students will need 3 hours to complete the exercises in full.

Further information about the assessments can be found in the Course Syllabus.

Feedback

Students will receive formative and summative feedback in a variety of ways, written (e.g. marked up on assignments, through email or the VLE) or oral (e.g. as part of interactive teaching sessions or in office hours).

Indicative Reading

Note: Comprehensive and current reading lists are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative reading list provided below is for a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only.

• Core text: Perloff, Jeffrey M. Microeconomics. 8th edition, Pearson, 2018
• Alternative: Pindyck, R., Rubinfeld D., Microeconomics, 9th edition, Pearson 2018
• Supplementary reading: Varian, H.R., Intermediate Microeconomics: A Modern Approach. 6th edition, W. W. Norton & Co., 2003

Indicative Topics

Note: Comprehensive and current topics for courses are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative topics provided below is used as a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only.

Students will typically study the following topics:

• Consumer choice
• Firm behaviour in the short and long run
• Market structures: perfect competition, monopoly, oligopoly, monopolistic competition
• Supply, demand, and market equilibrium