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MICROECONOMICS

Syllabus

EN IT

Learning Objectives

Course Description
The course will touch upon the basic elements of consumer choice and production theory in the context of the neo-classical theory of value and costs within the market regimes of perfect competition and monopoly. Reference to basic theorems of welfare in society will be made, without avoiding the several critiques that are raised to the so-called growing “market society”.

Learning Outcomes
The course contributes to the achievement of the objectives of the degree program, in line with the expected professional profiles and job outlets, by providing students with notions useful for an in-depth and critical understanding of some major debates in economics, including: the notion of the market, the criticisms made to it, and its mechanisms of operation under different conditions of context and starting point.


KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING:
Upon completion of the course, students will know and understand the concept of market regimes, particularly perfect competition and monopoly, the concept of consumer preferences, and the concept of technology, identifying the key variables that contribute to determining the market price of a given commodity.

APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING: The course provides the tools to understand various shocks that can affect market outcomes such as quantity and prices. After the lectures, students will consolidate their knowledge of the fundamental concepts of market performance and their ability to independently apply their acquired knowledge to the critical analysis of the functioning of global economies.

MAKING JUDGEMENTS: The ability to make independent judgments and conclusions about market outcomes and their optimality is stimulated by highlighting connections between concepts developed during the course, notions acquired in previous courses, and the links between these notions and major contemporary economic problems.

COMMUNICATION SKILLS: By attending the course and interacting with the lecturer, students will develop their communication skills and their ability to organize and share articulated reasoning, including through group work to be presented orally in debates with each other.

LEARNING SKILLS: Through the study of Microeconomics the students will acquire the ability to independently analyse and investigate specific topics related to the course contents.

Prerequisites

No formal pre-requisites

Program

The course programme is divided into 10 inter-related parts as follows (in parenthesis the number of the chapter of the textbook):

Topic 1 Thinking as an economist: supply and demand. Free or coercing markets? (1)
Topic 2 The consumer’s (often) rational choice (2)
Topic 3 Individual and market demand (3)
Topic 4 Consumer’s surplus and market-driven well-being (3)
Topic 5 The firm and its goals (4)
Topic 6 Technology (4)
Topic 7 Cost functions (4)
Topic 8 Perfect competition (5)
Topic 9 Monopoly (5)
Topic 10 Efficiency, Pareto and Marshall welfare criteria (5)

During each lecture, the lecturer presents the planned content with the aid of power point
presentations and invites students to critical reflection and dialogue.

Books

• What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets, by Michael Sandel, Penguin Books,
2013.
Required reading for Prof. Piga’s lectures (number of chapters in the schedule):
Principles of Microeconomics-Lectures, Giappichelli Editore.
Lectures Material handed over on line.
T.A. sessions material will be put on line.

Teaching methods

The course combines different teaching methods: lectures; seminars; student
presentations. The lectures will provide the students with the necessary information and
reading guidelines on the phenomena under study. Students are expected to attend each
class, to come to class prepared and to participate in discussions.

Students will agree the topic of their presentations with the lecturers and give assessed
presentations in which they will critically evaluate the content and argument of
a chosen topic and introduce related questions for the class discussion.

Exam Rules

Course assessment
The (default )verification of learning takes place exclusively through a final examination
which consists of an individual and group presentation as discussed below. The objective of
the final examination is to verify the achievement of the course learning outcome. In
particular, the examination assesses the student's overall preparation, ability to integrate
knowledge of the different parts of the programme, consequentiality of reasoning, analytical
ability and autonomy of judgement. In addition, ownership of language and clarity of
exposition are assessed, in adherence with the Dublin descriptors.

Assessment

All students are allowed to take the mid-term week exam.

Attending students
There are 3 proofs of exam. One needs to have passed the three proofs with an average of at least 18/30 with at least 16/30 in each of the in-class proofs.
20% of the assessment will be based on a 2-pages paper (at most 8000 characters), produced by a group of 10 students (15 groups) where the team membership is pre-assigned by the Professor. Students will choose a current global or local relevant issue on their own and will discuss it with a perspective they found in Sandel’s book, by explicitly quoting at the beginning one passage (no more than 3 lines) of the book. The discussion will be used to both confute and reinforce a point made by Prof. Sandel with the help of the new issue selected by the group.
The paper has to be turned in by no later than May 17, 2026 with all 10 signatures in it, otherwise points assigned will be 0 to all of the 10 students. Students may report unanimously that one student (and one only) did not participate in any way to the production of the work, in which case he/she alone will receive zero points.
Afterwards the paper will be presented by each group on a 15-30 minutes closed-room session with Prof. Piga where the 10 students will be randomly last-minute divided into 2 groups of 5 students, in favor and against the topic, and debate orally, being judged on their capacity to argue one against the other, involving everyone in the two 5-members team. Lack of presence in the debate implies individually losing the grade of the Sandel paper.
40% of the assessment will be based on an in-class mid-term written exam in mid-semester (chapters 1 to 3).
40% of the assessment will be based on an in-class final written exam at the end of the course (chapters 4 and 5).
The final grade will be-rescaled upwards according to a curve based on the overall class performance.
The final written exam for those who have passed the mid-term session exam (“dark green” exam) can take place also in the second round (“appello”) without losing the grade obtained through written midterm and paper. The said grade is lost if the student postpones the written final exam to the September round (“appello”), being treated after that as “non-attending student” (see below). The grade of the paper is never lost throughout the student carrier, always counting for 20%.
Rejection of midterm grade is not possible. If the attending student turns down the grade after the final written exam of the first/second round (“appello”) or fails to pass, he/she becomes treated as a “non-attending student” for the successive round/rounds of exams (“appelli”), however in case he/she passed the paper, 20% of the grade will be based on the paper grade still.
Attending students who failed the mid-term are allowed to take the first round exam with a final written exam on the whole program without extra-questions like for non-attending students (“light green” exam). In case he/she passed the paper, 20% of the grade will be based on the paper grade still.

Non-attending students (students with less than 80% of presence in class or that have turned down the attending student grade or failed the attending student evaluation or that have not participated to the production of the Sandel paper).
In the final exam of not attending students who did not participate to the debate, a question on the Sandel book will be inserted and an additional question on microeconomics will be asked (“red” exam).
In the final exam of not attending students who did participate to the debate one additional question on microeconomics will be asked (“orange” exam).
Non-attending students will take a final written exam based on the program underlined in the textbook.
Non-attending students who passed the midterm exam, (“yellow” exam), will do a final written exam like the attending students but with one extra question on the final part of the program.
The number of questions to be answered will depend on having passed or not the mid-term week exam. In case he/she passed the paper and debated it, 20% of the grade will be based on the paper grade still. Lack of presence in the debate implies losing the grade of the Sandel paper.




NOTE: If you are an Erasmus or a non Global Governance student who would like to attend one or more courses in the Global Governance programme, please be aware that, before enrolling in the course, you should have read the code of conduct and the procedural rules characterizing our programme. We assume that, if you enrol in the course, you have read and accepted all Global Governance values and rules. Notice that attendance is required from the very first lesson and you need to attend at least 80% of the course to be considered an attending student.
Description of the methods and criteria for testing learning
The examination assesses the student's overall preparation, ability to integrate the knowledge of the different parts of the program, consequentiality of reasoning, analytical ability and clarity of presentation, in accordance with the Dublin descriptors (1. knowledge and understanding; 2. applying knowledge and understanding; 3. making judgements; 4. learning skills; 5. communication skills).
The examination will be graded according to the following criteria:
Unsuitable: important deficiencies and/or inaccuracies in the knowledge and understanding of the topics; the topics are exposed in an incoherent manner and with inappropriate language.
18-20: barely sufficient knowledge and understanding of most of the topics, with some missing items; sufficient capacity for analysis; the topics are sometimes exposed in an inconsistent manner and with inappropriate/technical language;
21-23: basic knowledge and understanding of most of the topics; ability to analyze and synthesize correctly with sufficiently coherent logical argumentation, with possibly some inaccuracy in the technical language.
24-26: good knowledge and understanding of most of the topics; good analytical and synthetic skills with rigorously expressed arguments, though with possibly a few inaccuracies in the technical language.
27-29: complete knowledge and understanding of the topics; good capacity for analysis and synthesis. Arguments presented in a rigorous manner and with appropriate/technical language, with only minor inaccuracies.
30-30L: very good level of knowledge and thorough understanding of topics. Excellent analytical and synthetic skills and independent judgement. Arguments expressed in an original manner and in appropriate technical language.