Micro Economics

By Dr. M. Vasim Khan | School of Economics, DAVV

Learners enrolled: 924

Micro Economics is all about how individual actors make decisions, how supply and demand determine prices, how companies think about competition and determines the prices. All in all, this course enables students to understand the basics of economics particularly how economic agents - individuals and firms make rational decision in an economy. It is not only one subject of an overall curriculum, but, it is a fundamental and rudimentary for understanding advanced and hard core economic subjects like Macro Economics, International Economics, Welfare Economics, Mathematical Economics and Econometrics.

The whole syllabus of Micro Economics in this MOOC has been presented in five parts: Introduction to Economics; Demand Analysis; Consumer Behavior; Production Function and Cost Analysis; and Market Structure -Competitive & Non-Competitive Markets in total 48 modules. The first part, Introduction to Economics gives overview of major ideas of Economics comprising definitions of Economics, Principles of Economics. It also imparts nature and scope of Micro Economics, Interdependence between Micro & Macro Economics, and brief introduction about methodology of Economics. Second section covers a detailed study of Demand. It introduces the crucial assumption of Micro Economics i.e. ceteris paribus in Law of Demand. It also explores factors causing movements along the curve and shifts in the curve, and concept of various types of demand elasticity. Third part focuses on Consumer Behaviour which deals with the law of demand and consumer equilibrium with the help of utility analysis and indifference analysis. The Fourth section Production Function and Cost Analysis explicates about the most important economic agents: the producer (a company or firm)- who is responsible for creating the production function (output) and is subject to various cost measures. It also discusses how and why a firm's costs may differ in the short run and the long run. Lastly, fifth section Market Structure: Competitive & Non-Competitive Markets explains different type of market structure especially perfect (pure competition), imperfect competition (monopolistic competition and oligopoly), and monopoly. It also briefly discusses game theory, under prisoner's dilemma model and the Nash equilibrium. All in all, this course helps in better understanding of real-life situations. It will enable learners to think like an Economist.

Summary

Course Status :	Completed
Course Type :	Elective
Language for course content :	English
Duration :	12 weeks
Category :	Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit Points :	4
Level :	Undergraduate/Postgraduate
Start Date :	28 Jul 2022
End Date :	31 Oct 2022
Enrollment Ends :	15 Sep 2022
Exam Date :

Page Visits

Course layout

Weekly Study Plan

Week Module Title of Lesson/Module

1 1 Introduction to Economics

2 Principles of Economics

3 Scarcity and Choices

Production Possibility Frontier

4 Micro and Macro Economics

Meaning, Difference and Interdependence; Methodology of Economics

2 5 Law of Demand

Law of Demand, Demand Curve, Demand Schedule, Individual and Market Demand Curve. Exceptions of Law of Demand.

6 Movement and Shifts in Demand

Movement along a Demand Curve and Shifts in Demand Curve. Factors affecting Demand.

7 Elasticity of Demand

Concept and Different types of Price Elasticity of Demand, Measurement of Price Elasticity. Total revenue and Price Elasticity.

8 Income and Cross Elasticity

3 9 Consumer Behavior: Cardinal Utility Analysis -I

Meaning of Utility, Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility, Relationship between Marginal, Total Utility. Principle of Equi-Marginal Utility

10 Cardinal Utility Analysis -II

Principle of Equi-Marginal Utility, Critical evaluation of Cardinal Approach

11 Consumer Behavior: Ordinal Utility Analysis

Consumer Preferences, Assumptions, Indifference Curve, Indifference Map, Marginal Rate of Substitution, Properties of Indifference Curve, Non Normal cases of Indifference Curve

12 Ordinal Utility Analysis-II

Budget Line, Consumer Equilibrium (Necessary and Sufficient Condition), Corner Solutions, Substitutes and Complimentary Goods.

4 13 Income and Substitution Effect

Income Consumption Curve & Engel curve

14 Price, Income and Substitution Effect

Price Consumption Curve, Breaking up Price Effect

15 Application Indifference Curve

Cash Subsidy vs Kind Subsidy,

16 Revealed Preference Theory

5 17 Factors of Production

Meaning and Classifications of Factors of Production.

Production Function: Relationship between Inputs and Outputs.

18 Law of Variable Proportion,

Three stages of Law of Variable Proportion, Applicability of Law of Diminishing Returns

19 Production Function with Two Variables

Production Isoquants, Marginal rate of Technical Substitution, Economic Region of Production, Properties of Isoquants,

20 Optimum Factor Combination & Return to Scale

Iso-Cost Line, Optimal Combination of Resources, Cobb-Douglas Production Function, Returns to Scale

6 21 Introduction to Cost Analysis

22 Cost of Production

Concept of Cost, Social & Private costs, Short run Cost- Total, Average and Marginal Cost Curves. Learning Curve.

23 Cost of Production

Long run Cost Curves. Learning Curve.

24 Market Structure

Meaning of Market and Classification of Markets

7 25 Concept of Revenue

Concepts of revenue: Marginal and Average: Revenue under conditions of Perfect and Imperfect Competition

26 Firm: A General Analysis

Equilibrium of the Firm

27 Perfect Competition -I

Meaning and condition of Perfect Competition. Equilibrium of the firm. Producer surplus.

28 Perfect Competition-II

Industry Equilibrium, Industry’s long run supply curve

8 29 Stability Analysis

Demand- Supply Equilibrium: Walrasian and Marshallian.

30 Application of Demand - Supply Analysis

Impact of taxes and subsidy

31 Monopoly

Meaning and Conditions of Monopoly. Causes of Monopoly.

32 Price and Output Equilibrium under Monopoly

9 33 Monopoly -II

Shifts in demand curve and the absence of the supply curve The social costs of monopoly power including Deadweight loss.

34 Price Discrimination

Degrees of Price Discrimination

35 Monopoly Power

Measurement of Monopoly Power, Rule of thumb for pricing.

36 Horizontal and Vertical Integration of Firm

10 37 Imperfect Competition

Monopolistic and Oligopoly. Product Differentiation and Monopolistic Competition. Characteristics of Monopolistic Competition.

38 Monopolistic Competition-I

Price and Output Equilibrium

39 Monopolistic Competition-II

Selling Costs and Advertising. Optimum level of Advertising Outlay. Monopolistic Competition and economic efficiency

40 Oligopoly

Characteristics of Oligopoly, Oligopoly and Interdependence

11 41 Collusive Oligopoly

Cartel as a Cooperative Model

42 Price-Leadership Model

Price Leadership by dominant firm

43 Kinked Demand Curve Theory of Oligopoly

44 Prisoners’ Dilemma and Oligopoly Theory

12 45 Sales Maximization Model of Oligopoly Firm

46 Classical Model of Oligopoly

Cournot’s Duopoly Model, Stackelberg model

47 Contestable markets Theory

48 Pricing Public Utilities

Books and references

I- Reference Books

1. Advanced Economic Theory- Micro Economic Analysis, H L Ahuja, S Chand Publication, ISBN: 978-93-525-3332-9

2. Modern Microeconomics, A. Koutsoyiannis, Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN: 9780333778210, 9780333778210

3. Principles of Economics, Richard G. Lipsey, K.Alec Chrystal, Oxford University Press, ISBN-10‏ : 9780198775881, ISBN-13 ‏: 978-0198775881

4. Microeconomics, D. N. Dwivedi, Vikas Publishing House, ISBN-10 ‏:9325986701; ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-9325986701

5. Microeconomics, Paul A. Samuelson and William D. Nordhaus, McGraw Hill, ISBN-13: 978-1-25-909744-7; ISBN-10: 1-25-909744-7

6. Microeconomics, Stephen L. Slavin, McGraw Hill, ISBN-13: 978-93-392-0467-9; ISBN-10: 93-392-0467-0

7. Managerial Economics Theory and Applications, D.M. Mithani, Himalaya Publishing House, ISBN: 9789351420071, 9351420078

8. Microeconomic Theory, Dominick Salvatore, Oxford, ISBN-13: 978-0-07-058938-4; ISBN-10:0-07-058938-0

9. Principles of Microeconomics, Dominick Salvatore, Oxford, ISBN-13: 978-0-19-806230-1; ISBN-10: 0-19-806230-3

10. Managerial Economics, Geetika, Piyali Ghosh, Purba Roy Choudhury, McGraw Hill, ISBN-13: 978-93-87067-62-2; ISBN-10: 93-87067-62-9

II- Online Reading Materials

1. Your Article Library - https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/economics/

2. Economics Discussion Online- https://www.economicsdiscussion.net/notes/study-notes-on-economics/

3. Kalyan Sharing Wisdom Blog - https://kalyan-city.blogspot.com/search/label/Economics

4. Lumen Learning - https://lumenlearning.com/courses/microeconomics/

5. Study.com - https://study.com/academy/lesson/economic

6. Inomics (The Site for Economists) - https://inomics.com/

Instructor bio

Dr. M. Vasim Khan

School of Economics, DAVV

Dr. M. Vasim Khan is Assistant Professor (Senior-Grade) of Economics & Management at School of Economics, Devi Ahilya University, Indore since 2007. He has more than 15 years of teaching and research experience. He teaches core economics (Macro Economics, International Economics, Mathematical Economics) and applied research (Quantitative techniques and Applied Econometrics) subjects. His specialization is in Developmental Economics, Qualitative Research Methods and Applied Econometrics, in which he got awarded with Research Recognition Award 2020 for securing Highest Score in Research Performance in the State University.

He got awarded by the National Award for Excellence in Education 2021 and also received many Best Research Paper Awards in various National and International Conferences.

He is also Departmental Coordinator of UGC–CPEPA. Currently, he is the Project Director of ICSSR (MHRD Ministry) sponsored Major Research Project. This project is identified as the Novel and Path Breaking Research Proposals (Areas Unexplored). Besides it, he had also completed one Research Project successfully.

He is also the MOOC Coordinator (UGC, New Delhi) for the Subject Micro Economics. Apart from all these, He has number of publications in referred National and International Journals. He is Associated Editor of Journal of Madhya Pradesh Economic Association (MPEA) and esteemed member of editorial board of UGC Approved Amity Journal of Economics (AJECO). He is notified Resource Person at MSME-DI, Indore, Ministry of MSME, Govt. of India and He also takes lectures in the capacity of Resource Person in various Research Methodology, Economics related workshops, Refresher Course and FDP’s.