AGR6121: Microeconomics

Brief description of the Module

This course teaches the fundamentals of microeconomic concepts of supply and demand analysis in the context of organized agricultural firms and individual firms. The course is designed to provide learners with tools to analyse and formulate solutions to problems faced in small-holder farming systems with special emphasis on challenges faced by women. After a brief review of mathematical applications in microeconomics, the course focuses on lectures and problem sets with solution keys illustrating the concept application.

Course Objectives

This course provides a theoretical foundation in Economics and its application for almost all other courses in the programme. Specifically, the course is intended to enable students to:

• Acquire adequate knowledge of producer and consumer behavior.
• Understand analytical tools and skills needed for conceptualizing  a real-world microeconomic problems
• Apply microeconomic principles to solve agricultural, food, rural development, and welfare problems.

 Learning Outcomes

Having successfully completed the module, learners should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of: Advanced theories in microeconomics such as consumer and producer behaviour, market analysis, welfare economics, game theory and economics of information, as well as gender dynamics in microeconomic decision-making.

By the end of the course, the students should be able to understand:

• Consumer theory and its applications
• Theory of the firm and its applications 
• The fundamental theorems of welfare economics and their applications.

Course Materials

•  Hal, Varian. (2006). Intermediate Microeconomics -The Modern Approach, W.W. Norton & Co. New York.
• Hal, Varian. (1992). Microeconomic Analysis. 3rd Edition. W.W. Norton & Co. New York.
• Sanjay Rode. (2013). Modern Microeconomics. 1st Edition. Bookboon.com. Ventus Publishing ApS. ISBN 978-87-403-0419-0
• Nicholson, W., and Snyder. (2017). Microeconomic Theory: Basic Principles and Extensions, 12th Edition. London: South-Western (Thomas Learning).
• Binger, Brian, and Elizabeth Hoffman. 1998. Microeconomics with Calculus, 2nd Edition. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley.
• Hugh Gravelle and Ray Rees. (2004). Microeconomics (3rd Edition). Pearson Education Limited, UK.
• Geoffrey A. Jehle and Philip J. Reny. (2011) Advanced Microeconomic Theory. Prentice Hall
• Baumol, William J. 1999. Economic Theory and Operations Analysis, 4th Edition. New Delhi: Prentice-Hall of India. 
• Wolfstetter, E. (1999), Topics in Microeconomics, Cambridge University Press
• Bolton, P., Dewatripont, M. (2005), Contract Theory, MIT Press
• Campbell, D.E. (2006), Incentives, 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press
• Vega-Redondo, F. (2003), Economics and the Theory of Games, Cambridge University Press
• World Development (Vol. 23, No. 11, 1995) Special Issue - Gender and Economics
• http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/0305750X/23/11
• Mascia-Lees, Frances E. (2010). The global economy, neoliberalism, and labor. In Gender and difference in a globalizing world, (pp. 162–177), Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.