Learning Partnerships, Unit Catalogue 2008/09 |
AS00033 Microeconomics |
| Credits: 12 |
| Level: Foundation |
| Semester: 1 at City of Bath College |
| Semester: 1 at Wiltshire College |
| Assessment: CW 30%, EX 70% |
| Requisites: |
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Aims:
* To provide students with a basic knowledge of micro economics and its applications. * To enable students to solve economic problems relating to the consumer and the firm. * To analyse how government policy can generate improvements in economic welfare through policies such as tax and regulations. Learning Outcomes: On successful completion of the unit, students should be able to: * Explain theoretical concepts relating to the consumer, the producer and the marker. * Apply theoretical concepts to micro economic problems. * Show an awareness of the micro economic environment and how policy makers tend to influence it through taxation policy and regulation. Skills: Economic problem solving (assessed through assessments) and key transferable skills. Content: Economics of Consumer Demand * Utility and choice * Indifference curve analysis * Derivation of demand curve (market and individuals) * Price income and cross price elasticity * Shifts and movements along the demand curve. Market Mechanisms * Derivation of supply curve * Price elasticity of supply * Equilibrium of the market to derive price and quality levels. Production and Costs * Distinction between fixed, variable and total costs * Defining marginal and average costs * Economics of scale and the difference between average costs in the short and long term * The role of costs in determining a firm's equilibrium output level. Market Structure * Be able to derive equilibrium price and quantity for industries that are perfectly competitive, monopoly, monopolistically competitive and oligopoly * Government regulation and its impact on market structure. Factor Markets * Labour demand and labour supply * Transfer earnings and rents * Wages and employment * Minimum wage. |