Lecturer: Margherita Balconi   Roberto Fontana  

Course name: Economics
Course code: 500734
Degree course: Bioingegneria, Ingegneria Elettronica e Informatica, Ingegneria Industriale
Disciplinary field of science: SECS-P/06
The course relates to:
University credits: ECTS 6
Course website: n.d.

Specific course objectives

The course provides students with the most important analytic paradigms and methodological tools to analyze the economic context and to understand the economic logic that drives the choices of individuals and firms in a market economy. To this end, it presents an introduction to the concepts and basic models developed by the economic discipline to interpret markets' equilibria (in the different regimes of competition, oligopoly and monopoly) and to assess their degree of efficiency, to understand how private incentives work and the contexts that require public interventions (through regulation and antitrust). The various topics are addressed with particular attention to real world applications.

Course programme

The course provides an introduction to the main concepts and models of microeconomics. Topics are chosen on the basis of their interest for undergraduate students of Engineering. Basic elements of differential calculus are applied to model the economic actors' choices within alternative market contexts

Introduction to the main concepts and principles of Economics

The consumers' choices

Supply and demand

Elasticity and its applications

The efficiency of markets

The markets for factors of production

The costs of production

Firms in competitive markets

Monopoly

Introduction to game theory

Oligopoly

Monopolistic competition

Market failures: externalities, public goods and common resources

Course entry requirements

Basic notions of analytical geometry and differential calculus

Course structure and teaching

Lectures (hours/year in lecture theatre): 45
Practical class (hours/year in lecture theatre): 0
Practicals / Workshops (hours/year in lecture theatre): 0

Suggested reading materials

N.G. Mankiw and M.P.Taylor, Principi di Microeconomia, Zanichelli, 2014, selected chapters; downloadable materials available at http://economia.unipv.it/webbalco/ProgrammaEconomia.html

Testing and exams

Written exam with open questions