ASSAM UNIVERSITY SYLLABUS (NON - HONS): PRINCIPLES OF MICRO ECONOMICS (5th SEM - CBCS PATTERN)

B.Com: Semester V

Paper B.C. 5.4: PRINCIPLES OF MICRO ECONOMICS

Internal Assessment -30

Term End Exam - 70

Marks: 100

Lectures: 65

Unit 1: Introduction

(a) Demand and Supply: Determinants of demand, movements vs. shift in demand curve. Determinants of Supply, Movement along a supply curve vs. shift in supply curve; Market equilibrium and price determination.

(b) Elasticity of demand and supply

(c) Application of demand and supply.

Unit 2: Consumer Theory

Lectures 12                      20

Ordinal Utility theory: (Indifference curve approach): Consumer’s preferences; Interference curves; Budget line; Consumer’s equilibrium; Income and substitution effect; Price consumption curve and the derivation of demand curve for a commodity; Criticism of the low of demand.

Unit 3: Production and Cost

Lectures 12                               20

(a) Production: Firm as an agent of production. Concepts of Production function. Law of variable proportions, Isoquants; Return to scale. Economics and Diseconomies of scale.

(b) Costs: Costs in the short run. Costs in the long run, Profit maximization and cost minimization. Equilibrium of the firm, Technological Change: the very long run.

Unit 4: Market Structure

Lectures 10                                 20

(a) Prefer Competition: Assumption; Theory of a firm under perfect competition; Demand and Revenue; Equilibrium of the firm in the short run and long run. The long run industry supply curve: increasing, decreasing and constant cost industry. Allocation efficient under perfect competition.

(b) Monopoly: Short-run and long-run equilibrium of monopoly firm; Concept of supply curve under monopoly; Allocation inefficiency and dead-weight loss monopoly; Price discrimination.

(c) Imperfect Competition: Difference between perfect competitions, monopoly and imperfect competition;

(i) Monopolistic Competition: Assumption; Short – run Equilibrium; Long run Equilibrium; Concepts of excess capacity; Empirical relevance.

(ii) Oligopoly: Causes for the existence of oligopolistic firms in the market rather than perfect competition; Cooperative vs. non-cooperative behavior and dilemma of oligopolistic firms.

Unit 5: Income Distribution and Factor Pricing

Lectures 13                      20

Demand for factors. Supply of factor, concepts of economic rent; Ricardian. Theory of functional distribution of Income.

Suggested Readings:

1. Pindyck, R.S., D.L. Rubinfeld and P.L. Mehta; Microeconomics, Pearson Education

2. N. Gregory Mankiw, Principles of Micro Economics, Cengage Learning

3. Maddala G.S. and E. Miller; Microeconomics: Theory and Applications, McGraw-Hill Education.

4. Salvatore, D. Schaum’s Outline: Microeconomic Theory, McGraw-Hill Education.

5. Case and Fair, Principles of Micro Economics, Pearson Education

6. Koutisiyannis, Modern Micro Economic Theory.

7. C. Synder, Mircoeconomic Theory: Basic Principles and Extensions, Cengage Learning

8. Bilas, Richard A., Microeconomics Theory: A Graphical Analysis, McGraw-Hill Education.

9. Paul, A. Samuelson, William D. Nordhaus, Microecomics, McGraw-Hill Education.