Sessions taught: Spring 2022, Fall 2022
Course description
The purpose of this course is to offer a solid, intermediate-level training in theoretical microeconomics. We will try to achieve a more in-depth understanding of how the standard theoretical models of microeconomics work. The course consists of three parts. We will start out by analyzing consumer decision-making. We then turn to the behavior of firms. Finally, the third part of the course studies the interaction of consumers and firms in goods markets.
Prerequisites
- Principles of Economics
- Calculus III
Textbook
- “Intermediate Microeconomics with Calculus” — Hal Varian (2014)
I respect academic publishers too much to suggest [Googling the textbook title and authors with “pdf”](intermediate microeconomics with calculus hal varian pdf) to get a free electronic copy. Or downloading them, also for free, off Sci-Hub .
Resources
(to be updated soon, placeholders for now)
These slides are weekly elaborations on a specific newly introduced concept and so do not represent comprehensive coverage of the course material. They’re also not necessarily self-contained; I sometimes supplemented my slides with blackboard work and conversation with students, which is not always captured in the annotations. Course material is also instructor-specific; if you’re reading this as a Columbia student taking the same course, it may not correspond to the treatment or selection of topics your particular instructor chooses to cover. For example, compared to my Spring 2022 coverage, the following material from Fall 2022 covers a wider range of topics but omits some material such as the method of Lagrange multipliers.
Pre-course material
- Review of prerequisite calculus and optimization methods
- Logistics and introduction to the course