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 contemporary consumer and producer theory and market failure. Market structures, competitive and strategic behaviour including game theory; labour markets and the economic impact of migration are examined. 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 labour markets, migration, externalities, and market structures of industries 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

Individual consumer and market demand, elasticity and consumer surplus
Individual and market supply, elasticity and producer surplus
Market equilibrium, price determination and applications to different
markets ALL LO1

Preferences, utility functions, indifference curve analysis, income and substitution effects. Revealed preference.

Producer theory, production, isoquants, isocost and costs of
production. ALL LO1

Behavioural economics.
Choice under uncertainty. Demand for risky assets. All LO2

The market for labour. Skilled and unskilled labour, the graduate labour market in the UK and US. Trends in migration and its economic impact of migration in the UK and US. All LO2

Market structures: Perfect competition
Monopoly. Structural and strategic barriers to entry. Regulation of monopoly in the UK and EU. All LO2

Applications of pricing models: price discrimination, peak load pricing, two-part tariffs in electricity and gas industries and bundling. All LO3

Monopolistic competition. Branding and advertising expenditure in UK and US. LO3
    
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. All LO3

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. All LO3
    
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 trade restrictions. All LO3

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.
Small group presentation requires students to work collectively prior to carrying out their presentation.

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

Formative assessment, In Class Test, revision for ICT, feedback and group presentations will be carried out during the seminar time.

The students are expected to reflect on their learning in the formative assessment and peer feedback.

A feed-forward strategy is used to provide feedback prior to submission of coursework to enable students to improve their work.

The subject librarian is invited to provide support for on line resources available through the Library, particularly regarding the coursework topics.

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 and ICT papers, coursework brief, 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; team-working; communication, including oral presentation; data and quantitative analysis; self and peer assessment and reflection, are developed in lectures and seminars, and through independent directed learning and a range of assessment components. Skills development is enhanced through conducting research, working cooperatively solving economic problems and carrying out group presentations, providing quantitative analysis, reflecting on formative and summative assessments and providing peer feedback on formative assessment.

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. Analyse microeconomic concepts, principles and tools in consumer and producer theories and apply their knowledge in solving economic problems.

2. Demonstrate an in-depth understanding of theoretical knowledge, issues and problems of microeconomic policies and apply economic reasoning in a critical manner to areas such as choice under uncertainty; labour market and migration; and competitive and monopoly market structures.

3. 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.

There is a formative peer assessment in week 4 which supports students in developing for summative assessment. It stimulates students to reflect on their own learning and provide peer feedback.

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

There are three types of summative assessment consisting of a 50-minutes in class test in week 8, one individual coursework (1500 words essay and group presentation) in week 13 and a final two-hours part seen-part unseen exam at the end of the module.

The in-class-test will assess learning outcome 1 and will be based on questions and economic problems discussed during the seminar.

The coursework will assess learning outcome 2 and will be an independent piece of work requiring the application of knowledge gained on the module.  Students will individually and independently produce a 1500 words essay from a range of coursework titles. Students are provided with a free choice of formulating their own essay question under guidance of module lecturer.  Students doing the same essay will be placed in small groups to work as a team to prepare and give a group presentation. Feedback received from the group presentation will enable students to revise their individual essays prior to the final submission.

The group presentation will enable students to further develop their ability to work effectively in groups, undertake team activity, plan and allocate functions, seek to resolve any conflicts, communicate effectively, work under binding time constraints, and undertake a presentation

A feed-forward strategy is used to provide early feedback to students to improve their final submission. The feedforward strategy and class discussion of a detailed grading and assessment criteria create an opportunity for dialogue between students and staff to promote a shared understanding of the basis on which academic judgements are made.

The coursework is submitted in week 13 so that students can receive a timely, constructive and developmental feedback.

The lecturer will engage in revision activities before in-class test and 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 3. 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

6. Borjas, G (2016). Labour economics, 7th Ed., New York, McGraw-Hill. 
   Aldgate 331 BOR

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

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

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

More Technical Textbook

9. 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

Other Textbooks on the Diversity of Schools of Economics

10. Wilson, D and Dixon, W (2012). A history of homo economicus, the nature of the  
    moral in economic theory, London, Routledge. This is an E-Book.
    Hard copies of earlier editions are available at Aldgate 174.4 DIX

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