Enrollment year
2019/2020
Academic discipline
SECS-P/06 (APPLIED ECONOMICS)
Department
DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL,COMPUTER AND BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING
Course
ELECTRONIC AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING
Curriculum
PERCORSO COMUNE
Period
(30/09/2019 - 20/01/2020)
Lesson hours
45 lesson hours
Activity type
WRITTEN AND ORAL TEST
Prerequisites
Basic notions of analytical geometry and differential calculus
Learning outcomes
The course provides students with the most important analytic paradigms and methodological tools to analyze the economic context and to understand the economic logic that drives the choices of individuals and firms in a market economy. To this end, it presents an introduction to the concepts and basic models developed by the economic discipline to interpret markets' equilibria (in the different regimes of competition, oligopoly and monopoly) and to assess their degree of efficiency, to understand how private incentives work and the contexts that require public interventions (through regulation and antitrust). The various topics are addressed with particular attention to real world applications.
Course contents
The course provides an introduction to the main concepts and models of microeconomics. Topics are chosen on the basis of their interest for undergraduate students of Engineering. Basic elements of differential calculus are applied to model the economic actors' choices within alternative market contexts
Introduction to the main concepts and principles of Economics
The consumers' choices
Supply and demand
Elasticity and its applications
The efficiency of markets
The markets for factors of production
The costs of production
Firms in competitive markets
Monopoly
Introduction to game theory
Oligopoly
Monopolistic competition
Market failures: externalities, public goods and common resources
Teaching methods
Lectures (hours/year in lecture theatre): 45, by using powerpoint presentations made available to the students on the instructor's webpage and additional discussions on the blackboard.
Practical class (hours/year in lecture theatre): 0
Practicals / Workshops (hours/year in lecture theatre): 0
Reccomended or required readings
N.G. Mankiw and M.P.Taylor, Principi di Microeconomia, Zanichelli, 2015, selected chapters; downloadable materials available at http://economia.unipv.it/webbalco/ProgrammaEconomia.html
Assessment methods
Written exam with open questions
Further information
Written exam with open questions
Sustainable development goals - Agenda 2030