Microeconomics

The course aims to provide students with a general knowledge of microeconomics and help them understand the concepts needed to analyse economic phenomena related to national policy and interventions in the markets. It also introduces the economic analysis method, with reference to cost-benefit analysis of private and public actions.
Starting from the basic principles of political economics, the course will cover the analysis of individual choices, competitive markets, international trade, game theory, market failures. For each topic, examples and case studies will be presented in order to reveal the link with other disciplines in the field of international and political sciences.
Students will familiarise with elementary technical aspects of economic analysis through both frontal lessons and exercises.
Knowledge and skills acquired by students will help them successfully study economics in other courses of the degree programme.

By the end of the course, students are expected to have a general overview of the functioning of markets and the mechanisms that hinder an efficient allocation of resources, as well as to distinguish between Normative Economics (which describes the course of political actions) and Positive Economics (which analyses and explains phenomena). They should also have grasped the limits of application of the concepts of economic efficiency and economic balance, and their implications for the analysis of the interactions between subjects (private citizens, organisations, States) with contrasting or converging objectives. Finally, students should be able to solve economic models and develop logical arguments on resource allocation, the effects of taxation on goods, and the tools needed to reduce market failures such as excessive pollution or missing public goods production.
Through their active participation in lectures and exercises, students will develop the ability to use bibliographic and statistical resources to carry out research on various economic and social aspects related to the functioning of markets.