Summary

Microeconomic theory is based on a set of consistent assumptions that aim to provide systematic and realistic models of decision making for economic agents that allow us to analyze socio-economic situations such as market allocations, bargaining process or social choice problems. The course introduces the fundamental tools that are need for the analysis of these situations. We first focus on the decision problem of the consumer (consumer theory) with perfect information and then we turn to stochastic environments and introduce the most fundamental results of the theory of decision under risk and uncertainty. These tools lay the foundations for the analysis of the most fundamental market model, the perfectly competitive market model that is analyzed from a general equilibrium perspective. The course is closed with the presentation of the main results of welfare economics that are followed by the basics of the social choice theory.