Skip to main content
Skip header
Terminated in academic year 2011/2012

Microeconomics B - Intermediate Microeconomics

Type of study Follow-up Master
Language of instruction English
Code 114-0502/01
Abbreviation Mic B
Course title Microeconomics B - Intermediate Microeconomics
Credits 4
Coordinating department Department of Economics
Course coordinator Ing. Hana Janáčková, Ph.D.

Subject syllabus

1. Utility and choice
Utility, assumption about utility, Voluntary trades and Indifference Curves (their characteristics, slope, Marginal rate of substitution in consumption), Illustrating Particular preferences, Budget constraint (slope – marginal rate of substitution in exchange, shifts), Graphic and mathematic demonstration of Utility-maximization.
2. Individual Demand Curves
Demand function, Changes in Income, Income Consumption Curve, Normal Goods, Inferior Goods, Changes in a Good´s Price, Substitution and Income Effect for Various Goods, Changes in The Price of another Good, Substitutes and Complements, Construction of Individual Demand Curve, Shifts in an Individual´s Demand Curve, Consumer Surplus.
3. Market Demand and Elasticity
Construction of the Market Demand Curve, Elasticity, Price Elasticity of Demand, Income Elasticity of Demand, Cross Elasticity of Demand
4. Production
Production function, Marginal Product, Isoquant Analysis, Isoquant maps, Rate of technical Substitution, Returns to Scale, Input Substitution, Changes in Technology, Isocost Line (mathematic and graphic presentation), Cost-Minimalizing Input Choice, The firm´s Expansion Path
5. Firm´s costs, revenues, profit
Basic Concepts of Costs (accounting costs, opportunity costs, economic costs), Cost Curves, Marginal and Average Cost, Distinction Between the Short Run and Long Run, Revenues, Marginal and Average Revenues, Marginal Revenues and Price Elasticity, Economic Profit
6. Uncertainty and Strategy
Probability and Expected Value, Risk Aversion, Methods for Reducing Risk, The economics of Information (Certainty line, ISO EX-line, Indifferent curves).
7. Perfect Competition
Timing of a Supply Response, Pricing in the Very Short Run, Short-Run Supply, Shifts in Supply and Demand Curves, Long Run (Equilibrium Condition, Profit Maximization, Entry and Exit, Long-Run Equilibrium), the Constant Cost Case, Increasing Cost Case, Decreasing Cost Case and Long-Run Supply, Applying the Competitive Model
8. General Equilibrium and Welfare
A Perfectly Competitive Price System, Pareto model, Efficiency for Exchange, Efficiency for production, Exchange-Production Efficiency, The Edgeworth Box Diagram, PPF.
9. Monopoly
Causes of Monopoly (Technical Barriers to Entry, Legal Barriers to Entry), Profit Maximization, Monopoly Profits, Monopoly Supply Curve, Another Monopoly Goals, Monopolistic Distortions and Transfers of Welfare, Price Discrimination (I., II. III. Degree), Natural Monopolies

10. Oligopolies
Concept of Oligopoly, Barriers to Entry, Cournot Model, Bertrand Model, Other Model of Oligopolies
11. Monopolistic Competition
Concept of Monopolistic Competition, Demand Curve, Barriers to Entry, Compering with Perfect Competitive Firm, Sector Efficiency, Chamberlin Model
12. Pricing in Input Markets
Marginal Productivity Theory of Input Demand, Input Supply, Equilibrium Input Price Determination, Monopsony, Bilateral Monopoly,
13. Labour Market
Allocation of Time, Income and Substitution Effects of a Change in the Real Wage Rate, Labour Supply, Demand for Labour
14. Capital Market
Individual Savings – The Supply of Loans, Capital, Investments, Interest Rate, Firm´s Demand for Capital and Loans, Determination of the real Interest Rate, Efficiency of Investment (appreciation methods), PV, FV, NPV, Perpetuita
15. Market Failure
Asymmetric information (causes, consequences for market), Moral Hazard, Adverse Choise, Signalling, Externalities, Definition, Externalities and Allocational Efficiency, Property Rights, Bargaining, Coase Thorem, Public Goods, Characteristics, Derivation of the Demand for a Public Goods

Literature

FRANK, Robert H. Microeconomics and Behavior. 10th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2021. ISBN 978-1259394034 
KRUGMAN, Paul and Robin WELLS. Microeconomics. 6th ed. Hampshire: Worth Publishers, 2020. ISBN 978-1319245283 
VARIAN, Hal. R. Intermediate Microeconomics. A Modern Approach. 9th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2019. ISBN 978-0-393-91967-7 

Advised literature

ARNOLD, Roger A., Daniel R. ARNOLD and David H. ARNOLD. Microeconomics. 14th ed. Boston: Cengage Learning, 2022. ISBN 978-0357720639 .
NICHOLSON, Walter and Christopher M. SNYDER. Intermediate Microeconomics and Its Application. Boston: Cengage Learning, 2021. ISBN 978-0357133064 
VARIAN, H. R. Intermediate Microeconomics with Calculus: A Modern Approach. New York: W. W. Norton, 2019. ISBN: 978-0-393-68998-3