This course provides a solid grounding in microeconomic theory. The two main parts of the course deal with questions of microeconomic decision theory (household and firm decisions) and questions of market theory (equilibria and efficiency on competitive markets). The last part of the lecture deals with problems of imperfect competition (oligopoly markets) as well as the basics of game theory and welfare economics.

Learning objectives:
The main aim of the course is to teach students the basics of thinking in microeconomic models. In particular, students should be able to analyze goods markets and the determinants of market outcomes. In detail, students will learn

• to name and define the basic microeconomic terms.
• to explain the interrelationships in microeconomic models.
• to calculate the important parameters of microeconomic models.
• to judge the possible effects of economic policy measures on the behavior of economic agents (in simple decision problems) and possibly propose alternative measures.
• to analyze as a participant in a tutorial simple microeconomic problems by solving written exercises and presenting the results of the exercises on the blackboard.
• to become familiar with the basic literature on microeconomics.

In this way, students acquire the necessary basic knowledge

• to recognize the structure of economic problems on a microeconomic level and develop proposals for solutions.
• to provide active decision support for simple economic decision problems.

Workload:
Total workload for 5 credit points: approx. 150 hours
Attendance: 45 hours
Self-study: 105 hours

• Varian, H. R. 2016. Grundzüge der Mikroökonomik. 9. Auflage. De Gruyter Oldenburg Verlag.
• Pindyck, R. S. und Rubinfeld, D. L. 2015. Mikroökonomie. 8. Auflage. Pearson.
• Frank, R. H. 2006. Microeconomics and Behavior. 6. Auflage. McGraw-Hill/Irwin.