Intermediate Microeconomics

Intermediate Microeconomics

Course Objectives

This course develops the core tools of microeconomic theory at an intermediate level. Students will gain a rigorous understanding of consumer behaviour, preference structures, utility maximisation, and market demand. The course follows Chapters 1–8 of Varian's Intermediate Microeconomics: A Modern Approach.

Topics Covered

• Chapter 1 — The Market
  Introduction to supply and demand, equilibrium, and comparative statics. The role of prices in allocating resources.
• Chapter 2 — Budget Constraint
  The consumer's budget set, budget line, changes in prices and income, and the concept of affordability.
• Chapter 3 — Preferences
  Preference relations, indifference curves, properties of well-behaved preferences: monotonicity, convexity.
• Chapter 4 — Utility
  Utility functions, ordinal utility, marginal utility, and the marginal rate of substitution (MRS).
• Chapter 5 — Choice
  Optimal consumer choice, interior and corner solutions, demand functions derived from utility maximisation.
• Chapter 6 — Demand
  Normal and inferior goods, ordinary and Giffen goods, income and substitution effects, Engel curves.
• Chapter 7 — Revealed Preference
  Weak Axiom of Revealed Preference (WARP), recovering preferences from observed choices, index numbers.
• Chapter 8 — Slutsky Equation
  Decomposing price changes into substitution and income effects, Slutsky and Hicks substitution, compensated demand.

Assignment

Assignment details will be announced in class. Check back here for updates.