Advanced Microeconomics for Public Policy I

PPHA 32310 Advanced Microeconomics and Public Policy I serves as the first course in a two-quarter sequence. This course is for students who want to leverage their mathematical background to learn to think the way an economist thinks, and who want extensive practice in problem-solving. It is designed to support those goals through careful attention to formal definitions and arguments along with a partially flipped classroom with lots of in-class group work. The substantive focus for this quarter is on monopolistic and competitive markets. Roughly speaking, the first half of the course is about why economists are traditionally skeptical of monopoly and the second half is about why economists are traditionally fans of competition. Attention will be paid to both the descriptive economics of these situations and the normative presuppositions that go into the evaluations. Along the way, classical theories of the firm and the consumer will be studied as needed to analyze markets. Must be a Harris masters student to enroll. No exceptions for non-Harris students, even by consent.