LECON5211 Microeconomics and Behaviour Course Descriptor

Course Overview

The course gives students a specialist overview of different facets of human behaviour and choice, and the impact of these on wider economic systems. The course includes elements of consumer theory, producer theory, general equilibrium, and market failure, as well as game theory and information economics. It is designed to develop students’ skills in economic reasoning and strategic thinking.

In this course, we will formulate questions about microeconomic systems and behaviours, and provide the frameworks and models that can assist in answering them. In particular, we  will examine consumer preferences and the underlying assumptions behind them and make predictions about preferences, with the goal of better understanding consumer behaviour and the drivers behind it. The course will investigate firm behaviour and choice in the short and long run, and provide students with the analytical tools that enable them to critically assess mainstream microeconomic models as they relate to events in the real world. The  discussions on cooperative and non-cooperative game theories will provide students the tools for analyzing situations in which players make decisions that are interdependent. In the information economics section of the course students will learn how information systems affect the economy and economic decisions, and will be offered insights into the dynamics of information across networked systems such as the Internet.

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/seminars/workshops

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

Students will produce in-depth discussions and critiques of economic models and their uses, and recall, present, and apply the microeconomic theories and models covered in the course. Relying on local and global case studies and/or empirical data, students will be asked to analyse the interactions between different categories of economic agents and make informed predictions about their behaviours.

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.

• Bowles, S and Halliday, S (2022). Microeconomics. Oxford University Press
• Binmore, K (2008). Playing for real: a text on game theory. Oxford University Press.
• Rasmusen, E (2007). Games and information. Blackwell Publishing.

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 study the following topics:

• Preferences and Utility
• Efficiency
• Consumer Choices
• Firm Choices
• Partial Equilibrium