Microeconomics provides the foundation for modern economic theory and its applications, development economics included. This course is designed to help the students familiarize themselves with the economic way of thinking and set the stage for a serious study of issues in economic development.

The first half of the course will introduce fundamental elements, such as consumer choice, producer’s behavior, and competitive equilibrium. The materials also illustrate the twin pillars in the economic way of thinking, namely, rational choice by individual agents and equilibrium formed by mutually compatible choices.

Markets produce efficient allocation of resources under certain conditions, but sometimes fail to deliver. Market failures are more common and also more serious in developing economies and sometimes can trap them in a low stage of development. The second half will present selected topics that are especially relevant for the study of economic development. The topics include market power, game theory and prisoners’ dilemma, asymmetric information, and externalities and public goods. The final will cover only this part.

This course contains a little linear algebra and calculus but not that much.
However, there is no particular prerequisite.

Class Attitude and Participation 15%
Homework Assignments 25%
Midterm Exam 30%
Final Exam 30%

1. Microeconomics, 8th Edition, Pindyck, Pearson, 2017
2. Intermediate Microeconomics with Calculus: A Modern Approach, Varian, W. W. Norton & Company, 2014
3. Microeconomic Analysis, 3rd Edition, Varian, Norton, 1992
4. Microeconomic Theory, Mas-Colell, Whinston, Green, Oxford Unversity of Press, 1995
5. Advanced Microeconomic Theory, 3rd Edition, Jehle and Reny, 2014
6. Microeconomic Foundations I, Kreps, Princeton University Press, 2013

1 Demand, supply, and equilibrium
2 Consumer choice
3 Individual and market demand
4 Choice under uncertainty
5 Production
6 Cost of production
7 Midterm
8 Competitive market
9 Monopoly
10 Game theory, oligopoly
11 Factor income distribution
12 General equilibrium
13 Market failure (externalities, public goods)
14 Asymmetric information
Final exam

1. 이론 강의.
2. 대면 강의