The course, in its two parts, the first part is generally designed to introduce students to the fundamental concept of the economic behavior of individual decision-making units such as consumers, business firms and resource owners. Essentially, the course deals with the quantity and price determination in different market structures (both product and factor markets). In the second part it also introduces the concept of general equilibrium, game theory, welfare Economics and asymmetric information. By the end of the course students will be able to:
Ø Explain the rationale behind the demand and supply curves,
Ø Distinguish between short run and long run,
Ø Explain the nature of production and cost curves in the short run and long run,
Ø Elucidate how decision is made under the condition of uncertainty,
Ø State and elaborate the different laws of production and cost in the short run and long run ,
Ø Show the interaction between firms and consumers in the two extreme market structures of perfect competition and pure monopoly,
Ø Illustrate the pricing mechanism by a pure monopolist under different market environment and
Ø Measure the social cost of market imperfection with the example of dead weight loss of monopoly
- Teacher: Mihretu Tesfaye