本科课程《教学大纲》
1、课程基本信息
课程名称（中、英文）：西方微观经济学(双语) Microeconomics 课程号（代码）：10208130 课程类别：专业基础课
学时：51 学分：3
2, Course Description:
This course provides students with basic concepts and techniques needed to analyze economic problems in a variety of contexts. Students will study how various economic agents make their choices and decisions in a market environment, and the implications of those choices and decisions for the allocation of productive resources. This course is divided into four parts: Theory of the Consumer, Theory of the Firm, Theory of Markets, and a Brief Introduction to General Equilibrium Theory. After successful completion of this course students will be able to demonstrate command of basic and intermediate microeconomic concepts and graphical models, and apply them to new situations.
3, Course Outline
PART ONE: BASIC CONCEPTS (15 Courses) Chapter 1: The Fundamentals of Economics
Fundamental Concepts: scarcity and efficiency, free goods vs. economic goods, macroeconomics and microeconomics, normative vs. positive economics, opportunity cost
Key Problems of Economic Organization：what, how, and for whom Production-possibility frontier (PPF)
1. Define demand/supply in a market using words, tables, and diagrams.
2. Illustrate the shifts in demand caused by changes in factors other than price that influence a consumer’s willingness to purchase.
Chapter 2: Markets and Government in a Modern Economy
3. Explain the difference between changes in demand/supply and changes in quantity demanded/supplied.4. Illustrate the shifts in supply caused by changes in factors other than price that influence a firm’s willingness to produce and sell.
5. Use the concepts of shortages and surpluses to illustrate the natural tendency of a market to move toward equilibrium.
6. Show the effects of shifts in supply or demand using diagrams. Chapter 3: Basic Elasticity Concepts : price elasticity of demand, supply elastic, inelastic, unit-elastic demand, determinants of elasticity, total revenue = P × Q , relationship of elasticity and revenue change Applications of Supply and Demand : incidence of a tax, distortions from price controls, rationing by price vs. rationing by the queue
Elements of Supply and Demand
PART TWO: MICROECONOMICS: SUPPLY, DEMAND, AND PRODUCT MARKETS (30
Courses)
Chapter 4: Demand and Consumer Behavior
Fundamental Concepts : utility, marginal utility, utilitarianism, law of diminishing marginal utility, demand shifts from income and other sources, ordinal utility, consumer surplus
Equimarginal principle of equal MU of last dollar spent on each good: MU1/P1 = MU2/P2 = MU per $ of income
substitution effect and income effect paradox of value
Chapter 5: Production Thoery
Fundamental Concepts : inputs, outputs, production function, total, average, and marginal product,
Diminishing marginal product and the law of diminishing returnsConstant, increasing, and decreasing returns to scale Chapter 6: Analysis of Costs
Analysis of Costs total costs: fixed and variable, marginal cost, least-cost rule Useful rules to remember : TC = FC + VC AC = TC/q AC = AFC + AVC
At the bottom of U-shaped AC, MC = AC = minimum AC.
Chapter 7: Analysis of Perfectly Competitive Markets
Competitive Supply
P = MC as maximum-profit condition firm's ss supply curve and its MC curve zero-profit condition, where P = MC = AC shutdown point, where P = MC = AVC
summing individual ss curves to get industry SS
long-run zero-profit condition
producer surplus + consumer surplus = economic surplus efficiency = maximizing economic surplus Efficiency and Equity
allocative efficiency, Pareto efficiency
conditions for allocative efficiency: MU = P = MC efficiency of competitive markets efficiency vs. equity
Chapter 8: Imperfect Competition
Patterns of Imperfect Competition : perfect vs. imperfect competition, monopoly, oligopoly, monopolistic competition, product differentiation barriers to entry (government and economic)
Marginal Revenue and Monopoly : marginal (or extra) revenue, MR, MR=MC as the condition for maximizing profits, natural monopoly, the marginal principle , Cournot model \\ Stackelberg modelThe Nash equilibrium concept can also be
applied to markets in which firms produce substitute goods and compete by setting price.
The Prisoners’ Dilemma creates price rigidity in oligopolistic markets.
DISTRIBUTION (6 Courses)
PART THREE: FACTOR MARKETS: LAND, LABOR, CAPITAL, AND INCOME Chapter 9: The Labor Market
Wage Determination Under Perfect Competition: elements in demand for labor, elements in supply of labor:, income effect vs. substitution effect, compensating differentials in wages, rent element in wages, segmented markets and noncompeting groups
Impact of Unions
Discrimination in Labor Markets
Land: rent, inelastic supply of land, taxation of fixed factors, Henry George's \"single tax\"
Chapter 10: Land and Capital
Capital and Interest : capital, capital goods, tangible assets vs. financial assets, rentals, rate of return on capital, interest rate
4, Required Textbook
Samuelson & Nordhous,Economics,17th edition
5, Recommended Textbook
1. The Principles of Economics, Mankiw,
2. Intermediate Microeconomics: A Modern Approach (Sixth Edition), by Hal R. Varian,
2003. W. W. Norton.
6,Grading policyThe course grade will be based on homework, midterm exam, and a final
exam. The weights are: Homework:15% Midterm exam:25% Final exam:40% Others:20%
