module specification

This module enables students to acquire a systematic understanding and knowledge of conventional intermediate microeconomics and an awareness of behavioural economics. It provides appropriate tools of analysis to examine market structures such as monopolistic competition and oligopoly; competitive and strategic behaviour including game theory; and market failure such as externalities, asymmetric information and public goods. It allows students to develop an appreciation of issues and problems facing policy makers and a capacity to apply economic reasoning in a critical manner.

Students are encouraged to reflect and draw on their diverse socio-cultural
backgrounds and experiences during class discussions and in module seminar
preparations.

Equality is promoted by treating everyone with equal dignity and worth, and raising aspirations and supporting achievement for those students with diverse requirements and backgrounds.

Internationalisation is addressed when examining market structures of industries and externalities such as pollution in the UK, USA and EU.

The module aims to develop students' employability skills, in particular subject research; team-working; written and oral communication; data and quantitative analysis; analytical; problem solving; self and peer assessment and reflection.

FE4001 or equivalent

Applications of pricing models: price discrimination, peak load pricing, two-part tariffs in electricity and gas industries and bundling.

Monopolistic competition. Branding and advertising expenditure in UK and US.
Market concentration in different industries in the UK and EU
Oligopoly. Kinked demand curve.
Cournot and Bertrand Duopoly models. Nash equilibrium.
Strategic behaviour and game theory.

Market failure. Externalities. Pollution. The economics of the environment. Eg. Case studies about pollution from China and Nigeria. Different policies to tackle pollution in the USA, UK and China.
    
Private and public goods. Tragedy of commons.
Asymmetric information. The market for lemons. 

General equilibrium. Edgeworth box, Pareto efficiency, the economics of trade.
Comparative advantage. Welfare analysis of trade restrictions. All LO1

Teaching is structured around three hours of weekly contact time with students. Formal contact time is structured as follows:
Lecture – two hours per week. The lecture will discuss the week’s topic by presenting the main theoretical analysis. Lecture materials will be available on Weblearn. Typically, students will be given time to engage in an activity based upon the material presented in each lecture.

The seminar will be one hour per week and will go through problem sets made available on WebLearn. Students are expected to carry out independent work and prepare for these seminars, solve problems using economic analysis, present answers to the problems and follow a discussion. Feedback will be provided during seminars.

Both lecture and seminar activities are structured to enable students to initially develop basic knowledge and then to progress to develop higher order skills of synthesis and critical evaluation

The subject librarian is invited to provide support for on line resources available through the Library.

The module uses blended learning through the virtual learning environment, WebLearn where all the learning and teaching materials such as lecture notes, seminar questions, past exam papers, assessment and grading criteria, assessment strategy and deadlines for feedback will be made available.

Example links to complementary web resources, such as subject relevant Youtube videos, are also provided.

Students' employability skills in particular, subject research; communication, data and quantitative analysis; self-assessment and reflection, are developed in lectures and seminars, and through independent directed learning. Skills development is enhanced through conducting research, working cooperatively solving economic problems and providing quantitative analysis.

Initiative and independence is developed progressively through the module such that students are required to take greater responsibility of their work.

On successful completion of this module students will be able to:

1. Apply theoretical knowledge, analyse economic concepts and problems, and evaluate solutions in areas such as price discrimination, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, game theory, market failure, general equilibrium, welfare and trade.

The formative and summative assessments and feedback practices encourage reflection, consideration of professional and practice, subject-specific knowledge and educational scholarship.

Through summative assessment, students are provided with opportunities to develop an understanding of, and the necessary skills to demonstrate, good academic practice

The lecturer will engage in revision activities before the final exam to support students. This should boost students’ confidence as they approach the examinations period and thereby improve their performance.

The final exam will assess learning outcome 1. The part seen-part unseen exam will assess the student’s knowledge and understanding of microeconomics covering theory, issues, policy and application and ability to apply and critically evaluate what they learn.

All the information about the processes of marking and moderating marks, the timing of assessments and deadlines for feedback provision are clearly provided in the module booklet and communicated to students through Weblearn as well.

Comprehensive reading lists are provided to students in their handbooks.
Reading Lists will be updated annually.

Core Reading:

1. Pindyck, R. S. and Rubinfeld, D. L. (2018). Microeconomics, 9th edition, Harlow,
   Pearson. This is an E-Book.   Hard copies of earlier editions are available at Aldgate
   338.501 PIN 

Additional Reading:

2. Perloff, J. M. (2018). Microeconomics, 8th ed., Boston, Pearson.
   This is an E-book. Hard copies of earlier editions are available at Aldgate 338.3 PER

3. Perloff, J. M. (2013). Microeconomics with calculus, 3rd ed., Boston, Pearson.
    Hard copies of earlier editions are available at Aldgate 338.5 PER

4. Nechyba T. J. (2017). Microeconomics: an intuitive approach with calculus, 2nd ed., 
    Australia, South-Western Cengage learning. Aldgate 338.5 NEC

5. McConnello, C. R., Brue, S. L. and Flynn, S M (2018). Microeconomics: principles,
   problems, and policies, 21st. ed., Dubuque, McGraw-Hill Education.
   Ordered for Aldgate on 07.02.2018

Non-Technical Textbooks with an emphasis on real world examples:

6. Krugman, P and Wells R (2015).  Microeconomics, 4th ed. New York, NY Worth
    Publishers. Earlier editions are available at Aldgate 339 KRU

7. Frank, R H (2015). Microeconomics and behaviour, 9th ed., New York, McGraw-Hill.
    Aldgate 338.5 FRA

More Technical Textbook

8. Varian, H (2014). Intermediate microeconomics: a modern approach, 9th ed., New
    York, W.W. Norton and Co.
   Hard copies of earlier editions are available at Aldgate 338.5 VAR

Electronic Databases and Journals:

Business Source Complete
Science Direct
World Bank e-library
ESDS (for international data)
Emerald Management e-journals
Sage Journal Online
Eurostat, IEA, IMF, OECD, UNIDO and World Bank
Passport
UK Data Service
Statista

Instructional videos on relevant microeconomics topics can be accessed via YouTube. Example links include:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9BkAGflT0o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJMwcP1pLEQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKlQAVsK7b8&feature=autoplay&list=PLB866467EE8D16137&index=48&playnext=2

Videos on Pollution
https://youtu.be/4cOFf962PDc
https://youtu.be/gs5mivSp4yo
https://youtu.be/9tUb3MDrgE