Microeconomics 1

The course examines how individuals and firms make decisions by weighing up costs and benefits, and how the interaction of their decisions leads to market and social outcomes. The model of market supply and demand is employed to examine the effects of taxes, subsidies, and other government interventions in market activity. The implications of different market structures, including perfect competition and monopoly, are examined. Public goods, externalities and common resources are key examples of cases in which private markets may yield socially sub-optimal outcomes. Such cases are examined and the role of government policy in correcting for these is discussed.