London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

Modules

66
Microeconomics

Prerequisites - 02 Introduction to economics and 05a Mathematics 1.

The syllabus examines how economic decisions are made by households and firms, and how they interact to determine the quantities and prices of goods and factors of production and the allocation of resources. It also investigates the principles of microeconomic policy and the role of government in allocating resources. The topics covered are:

Consumer choice and demand including inter-temporal choice and choice under uncertainty;

The firm’s goals, production and costs;

Market structure – competition, monology, oligopoly and the new industrial economics;

Factor markets – the pricing of labour and capital services and capital assets;

The economics of information;

General equilibrium and welfare economics – economic efficiency and equity, market failures arising from monopoly, externalities and public goods;

Government and the theory of public choice.

A knowledge of constrained maximisation and lagrangian functions would be helpful for students taking this subject.