In the microeconomic section of the module, we analyze supply and demand, market equilibrium and how government policy can affect it. Then, the notion of elasticity is introduced. We concentrate on applications and the importance of elasticity in firms’ pricing decisions. Furthermore, we briefly review production cost and discuss in detail certain aspects of market structure. We study the major firms’ decisions in different market structures (perfect competition, monopoly, monopolistic competition and oligopoly). We introduce the basic concepts of game theory and market power indices and briefly consider regulation policy.
In the macroeconomic section, we review some basic macroeconomic concepts, such as gross domestic product (GDP), real GDP, nominal GDP, and price indices. Then, we introduce the concept of growth and discuss how it can be measured. Finally, we turn to international macroeconomics. We analyze income determination in an open economy, the balance of payments, government policy in a small open economy, exchange rates and the notion of comparative advantage.