This course aims at equipping students with an in-depth understanding of microeconomic concepts, analyses, and their applications in the real world.

This course builds upon some basic knowledge in economics, and provides students with a balanced coverage of both standard/traditional and modern microeconomic theories. It aims at equipping students with an in-depth understanding of various economic tools for analyzing market behavior and decision making at consumer and firm levels. The course will also cover techniques of optimization, equilibrium and strategic interaction in detail in the context of problems relating to consumers and firms.

The standard models of the general theory of microeconomics (such as the models of consumer theory, perfect competition, and monopoly) will be studied extensively to establish a concrete microeconomic understanding. Several applications of the basic theory (such as the analyses of the effects of taxation and government regulation) will also be introduced. A considerable amount of time will be devoted to study game theory through which modern microeconomic theory functions. Various applications of game theory to oligopolistic markets, uncertainty and asymmetric information will also be covered (given that time permits).

The course meets weekly for a three-hour lecture. The lectures introduce theories/models and problem solving sessions that mainly focus on applying the microeconomic models to real world problems.