2024
Principles of Microeconomics
Name: Principles of Microeconomics
Code: ECN02314L
6 ECTS
Duration: 15 weeks/156 hours
Scientific Area:
Economy
Teaching languages: Portuguese
Languages of tutoring support: Portuguese, English
Regime de Frequência: Presencial
Presentation
This UC is an introductory course to Economics, which provides knowledge, principles, concepts and elementary models of economic analysis.
Sustainable Development Goals
Learning Goals
Principles of Microeconomics is an introductory course that emphasizes the principles, concepts, models and analytical instruments of economic theory related to markets, consumers, production systems and market structures. It aims to equip the student with essential knowledge and analytical tools to understand phenomena related to the organization and functioning of markets, consumption decision-making by consumers, efficiency in the production of companies and the behaviour of these agents in different market structures. At the end of the course, students must gather essential skills and knowledge about rules of analysis and concepts of microeconomic theory, the functioning of markets and the behaviour of economic agents, and about market structures of perfect competition and monopoly. They must have the ability to develop a coherent reflection and discourse on these economic topics.
Contents
1. Introduction
1.1 Economics as a science
1.2 The economic problem: scarcity and choice
1.3 Societys technological possibilities
1.4 Review of mathematical tools and graphical analysis
1.5 The economic circuit
2. Model of Supply and Demand - Introduction
2.1 Market
2.2 Demand curve
2.3 Supply curve
2.4 Joint analysis of supply and demand
2.5 Government intervention in the market
2.6 Consumer surplus and producer surplus
3. Consumer behaviour
3.1 Utility and preferences
3.2 Static equilibrium of the consumer
3.3 Changes in income and prices: impact on consumer choices
4 Firm's production and organization
4.1 Basic concepts
4.2 Production
4.3 Costs
4.4 Firms decision: optimal combination of factors
5. Markets
5.1 Perfect Competition
5.2 Monopoly
1.1 Economics as a science
1.2 The economic problem: scarcity and choice
1.3 Societys technological possibilities
1.4 Review of mathematical tools and graphical analysis
1.5 The economic circuit
2. Model of Supply and Demand - Introduction
2.1 Market
2.2 Demand curve
2.3 Supply curve
2.4 Joint analysis of supply and demand
2.5 Government intervention in the market
2.6 Consumer surplus and producer surplus
3. Consumer behaviour
3.1 Utility and preferences
3.2 Static equilibrium of the consumer
3.3 Changes in income and prices: impact on consumer choices
4 Firm's production and organization
4.1 Basic concepts
4.2 Production
4.3 Costs
4.4 Firms decision: optimal combination of factors
5. Markets
5.1 Perfect Competition
5.2 Monopoly
Teaching Methods
The teaching and learning methods include:
• Lectures in the classroom;
• Solving exercises in the classroom;
• Presentation and discussion of real examples of companies and markets;
• Using the Internet for real-time access to relevant documents and websites.
• Lectures in the classroom;
• Solving exercises in the classroom;
• Presentation and discussion of real examples of companies and markets;
• Using the Internet for real-time access to relevant documents and websites.
Assessment
The evaluation of this course has two options:
1) Continuous evaluation regime, which includes:
- Attending at least 75% of the classes;
- Doing three individual written tests over the semester.
The final classification will be the simple mean of the scores of the three tests.
2) Exam regime, which includes
- Doing a final exam.
1) Continuous evaluation regime, which includes:
- Attending at least 75% of the classes;
- Doing three individual written tests over the semester.
The final classification will be the simple mean of the scores of the three tests.
2) Exam regime, which includes
- Doing a final exam.
Certificações
