Advanced Microeconomics I (2013‐14)
Course number: ECO600E
Instructor: Yosuke YASUDA (yosuke.yasuda@gmail.com) Teaching Assistant: TBA
Term / Time / Room: Fall 1st / TBA / TBA
Course web: https://sites.google.com/site/yosukeyasuda/Home/teaching/micro13f_1
1. Course Description
This is an advanced course in microeconomics, emphasizing the applications of mathematical tools and models to the study of individual economic decisions and their aggregate consequences. We begin with a parsimonious set of hypotheses about human behavior and the ways in which individual choices interact, and then examine the implications for markets. This entails treatments and applications of consumer theory and theory of the firm, under the ideal conditions implied by our hypotheses.
2. Course Outline (tentative and subject to change)
1. Basic Mathematics 2. Logic, Sets, and Topology 3. Optimization
4. Consumer Problem 5. Consumer Demand 6. Duality
7. Midterm exam 90 minutes 8. Preference, Choice, and Utility 9. Firm Problem
10. Short‐run and Long‐run 11. Partial Equilibrium 12. Welfare and Allocation 13. General Equilibrium 14. Production Economy 15. Time and Uncertainty 16. Final exam 150 minutes
3. Course Grade
Course grade will be determined by combining grades on a midterm exam (40%) and a final exam (60%). Problem sets with solutions will also be distributed.
4. Textbooks
Advanced Microeconomics I (and also II) does not use specific textbooks. Instead, I provide my own lecture slides, which are downloaded from my course website:
https://sites.google.com/site/yosukeyasuda/Home/teaching/micro13f_1
There are two textbooks that you may find useful to complement my lecture notes. You are encouraged to purchase the second ([NS]), since it will serve as the main textbook for Advanced Microeconomics III and IV. For the first one ([JR]), the copies of related chapters will be distributed in class.
[JR] Geoffrey Jehle and Philip Reny, Advanced Microeconomic Theory, 3rd, 2011 [NS] Walter Nicholson and Christopher Snyder, Microeconomic Theory: basic principles and extensions, 11th, 2011 (older versions would be OK)
An insightful advanced textbook on individual choice theory, which contains full of original ideas.
Ariel Rubinstein, Lecture Notes in Microeconomic Theory, 2nd, 2012
You can download the previous version of the file from the author’s website for free: http://arielrubinstein.tau.ac.il/Rubinstein2007.pdf
A standard graduate level textbook with full of intuitive explanation is: Hal Varian, Microeconomic Analysis, 3rd, 1992
Those of who look for more lucid treatment than the above textbooks may consult with the following authoritative sources. The former comprehensively incorporates game theoretical perspectives into microeconomics, and the latter is the best‐seller graduate level textbook for economics Ph.D. students.
David Kreps, A Course in Microeconomic Theory, 1990
Andreu Mas‐Colell, Michael Whinston and Jerry Green, Microeconomic Theory, 1995
A classic but still useful textbook for consumer theory and its applications is: Angus Deaton and John Muellbauer, Economics and Consumer Behavior, 1980
A well‐written and highly accessible book for optimization techniques is: Avinash Dixit, Optimization in Economic Theory, 2nd, 1990
A more advanced, yet readable textbook on optimization is:
Rangariajan Sundaram, A First Course in Optimization Theory, 1996
The followings are comprehensive and rigorous textbooks on mathematics for economics, both of which contain variety of economic applications:
Angel de la Fuente, Mathematical Methods and Models for Economics, 1999 Efe Ok, Real Analysis with Economic Applications, 2007
