This course provides an introduction to the functioning of economic markets: it describes what lies behind the notions of demand and supply. Emphasis is placed on the behavioural assumptions that generate demand for particular products, and on whether the producers of a particular product compete in a perfect or an imperfect way. We also explore important extensions to the basic model such as uncertainty and asymmetric information. The main blocks of the curriculum are:

Supply and Demand; Consumer theory: preferences, rationality assumptions, budgetary constraints; Extensions: Uncertainty and information economics, Producer theory: production and costs functions; Market structure: perfect competition, monopoly, monopolistic competition, oligopoly.