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UNIVERSITA’ DEGLI STUDI DI SIENA
DIPARTIMENTO DI ECONOMIA POLITICA E STATISTICA A.A. 2017-2018
MICROECONOMICS (PART I)
Instructor:
Prof. Silvia Tiezzi
Dipartimento di Economia Politica e Statistica, Piazza San Francesco, 7 53100 Siena.
Office 221, 2nd floor.
Tel: 0577-233029
Email: silvia.tiezzi@unisi.it
Web page: http://docenti.unisi.it/silviatiezzi/
Office Hours:
Monday: 3:00pm 5:00pm
Dipartimento di Economia Politica e Statistica, Office 221, 2nd floor Class Hours:
The first Class is scheduled for Monday, October 16 2017 from 8:30am to 10:00am Aula 5 The Class schedule for the academic year 2017-2018 is the following:
Monday 8:30am – 10:00am Aula 5 Tuesday 8:30am – 10:00am Aula 5 Wednesday 10:00am – 12:00noon Aula 5 Class webpage:
All course materials, syllabus, exercizes and other information related to this course will be posted on the following URL:
http://elearning.unisi.it/moodle
Password to subscribe to the course: advmicro17 Prerequisites:
Intermediate microeconomics and calculus.
Learning Goals and Outcomes:
This course is the first in a sequence of two advanced microeconomic theory courses offered in the MSc in Economics Curriculum at the School of Economics and Management of the University of Siena. The course will cover in-depth the modern microeconomic theory of economic choices made by individual consumers. The topics we will cover include special classes of preferences, choice under uncertainty, individual measures of welfare. The course also introduces the students to models of asymmetric information, strategic behavior and interactions among agents.
We will study theoretical models and empirical evidence for a wide variety of economic phenomena.
Student are expected to demonstrate the ability to think critically and to use appropriate concepts to analyze microeconomic problems.
2 Logistics:
Class time consists of lectures and exercises.
The course includes 40 hours of lectures.
Two practical sessions (in class exercizes) will be scheduled after each 20 hours of lectures.
The course will be taught entirely in English.
Students are expected to attend all lectures and to be active participants.
Course materials will be posted on Moodle website.
Required Textbooks:
(JR) G.A. Jehle and P.J. Reny, Advanced Microeconomic Theory, 3d edition, Addison-Wesley, 2011.
(MG) F. Munoz-Garcia, Advanced Microeconomic Theory: an intuitive approach with examples.
MIT Press, 2017.
Other Useful Textbooks:
(DM) A. Deaton and J. Muellbauer (1980) Economics and Consumer Behavior. Cambridge University Press, 1980.
(V) H. Varian, Microeconomic Analysis, 3rd. ed., Norton, 1992. A shorter treatment of PhD-level microeconomic theory than the above two books.
Course Evaluation:
There will be a written final exam at the end of the course. The exam will consist of problems drawn from material covered in the lectures and in the practical sessions. These problems will generally be in the nature of extensions and replications of that material.
Course Outline (additional readings may be added during the course):
1. Consumer Theory (Chapter 1 JR) 1.1 Preferences and Utility
1.2 The Consumer’s problem
1.3 Indirect Utility and Expenditure 1.4 Properties of Consumer Demand
2. Topics in Consumer Theory (Chapter 2 JR) 2.1 Duality
2.2 Integrability
2.3 Revealed Preferences
3. Choice under Uncertainty (Chapter 5 MG) 3.1 Preferences over lotteries (Section 5.1 and 5.2) 3.2 Violations of the IA (Section 5.3)
3.3 Behavioral theories (Section 5.4) 3.4 Money lotteries (Section 5.5)
3.5 Measuring risk preferences (Section 5.6) 3.6 Arrow-Pratt coefficients (Section 5.7) 4. Game Theory (Chapter 7 JR)
4.1 Strategic Decision Making (Section 7.1) 4.2 Strategic Form Games (Section 7.2)
* Additional topics in Game Theory will be covered in Advanced Micro II
3 5. Contract Theory (Chapter 10 MG)
5.1 Moral Hazard (Section 10.1)
5.2 Moral Hazard with a continuum of Effort Levels (Section 10.2)
* Additional topics in Information Economics will be covered in Advanced Micro II.
The proofs of the Theorems covered in the main textbook (JR) are usually excluded from the course program unless explicitly specified by the instructor.
