• Develop critical perspectives on fundamental arguments about economic and social policies
• Rethink critically economic policies such as government intervention, labor market restrictions, tariffs and quotas, among others
• Understand how markets work and what are the effects of market frictions
• Analyze decision-making by firms, rent-seeking and profit maximization behavior
• Understand the microeconomic principles of macroeconomics

This course invites undergraduate students to delve into the principles of economics. The beginning of the XXI century marks a period of growth and challenge to both developing and developed economies, and in this course we begin to understand how to analyze economic phenomena. 
The main goal of the course is to present the main topics in microeconomics to a non-specialized audience. The focus will be on applications and policy implications, instead of formal demonstrations. Ideally, students will leave the course with a critical perspective on economic models and will be able to apply their knowledge to a plethora of different situations. The course is also structured to be a first step for those students that want to pursue more specialized knowledge in Economics. Critical thinking will be as important as knowledge of the formal mechanisms of economic models.
The course is structured to provide students with a series of coherent modules, beginning with the main definitions and going through models in Industral and International Economics. The first module introduces the basic concepts in economics. The second module analysis the behaviour of markets and firms. The third module presents the main concepts in Industrial Economics; while the fourth brings Special Topics and applications to International Economics.

Preliminary assignment: 1-2 pager summary of an article on privatization: Why is the Royal Mail being privatised? The Economist, Oct 10th 2013.

Class 1. Market Mechanisms; Supply and Demand. Government Policy: Price Controls and Taxes.
Class 2. Elasticities of Supply and Demand; Societal Organization and Gains Through Trade. Labor Market.
Class 3. Policy applications: Tariffs, import quotas, agricultural subsidies, economics of regulation.
Class 4. Theory of the Firm. Firm Equilibrium. Pricing and Costs. 
Class 5. Break-Even Point. Price Discrimination.
Class 6.Perfect Competition, Externalities and Public Goods. 

Feedback activity: based on the article “Market for Blood” by Slonim et al (2014). 

Class 7. Coase theorem and design of micro government policy; Product differentiation and price discrimination. Welfare Economics.
Class 8. A Primer on Game Theory. Competition and Cooperation.
Class 9. Market Power, Monopoly Pricing, Static Models of Oligopoly: Bertrand, Cournot, Stackelberg 
Class 10. Market Power, Monopoly Pricing, Static Models of Oligopoly: Bertrand, Cournot, Stackelberg 
Class 11. Review lecture.

Preliminary Assignment: To help students get maximum value from ISUP courses, instructors provide a reading or a small number of readings or video clips to be read or viewed before the start of classes with a related task scheduled for class 1 in order to 'jump-start' the learning process.

Course timetable is available on https://www.cbs.dk/uddannelse/international-summer-university-programme-isup/courses-and-exams

We reserve the right to cancel the course if we do not get enough applications. This will be communicated on https://www.cbs.dk/uddannelse/international-summer-university-programme-isup/courses-and-exams end February 2019 at the latest.

Mandatory readings:

Mankiw, G. Principles of Microeconomics (South-Western College Pub; 7th edition), 2014.
Zeidan, R. Economics of Global Business (MIT Press), 2018.

Additional relevant readings:

Pyndick and Rubenfeld, Microeconomics (8th Edition), Prentice Hall, 2012; Gibbons, R. A Primer on Game Theory (2012); and Krugman and Obstfeld, International Economics, 2011.