中级微观经济学中山大学.ppt

MICROECONOMICSClassroom Lecture Notes (3 credits, as of 2004) based on Hal R. Varian’s Intermediate Microeconomics, Sixth Edition, referring to Pindyck and Rubinfeld’s Microeconomics, Fourth Edition. Problem of trade-off, and choice. Economics, as a way of thinking, as a dismal science. Problems - solutions - hidden consequences. Main decision-making agents: 1 individuals (household), 2 firms, and 3 governments. Objects of economic choice are commodities, including goods and services. Main economic activities: Consumption, Production, and Exchange. Microeconomics and macroeconomics: to show the market mechanism (the invisible hand), to supplement it. The product market and the factor market. The market relation is mutual and voluntary. Positive issues and normative issues. Marginal analysis Relations between Total magnitudes, Average magnitudes, and Marginal magnitudes. 1, MM is the slope of the TM curve; 2, AM is the slope of the ray from the origin to the point at the TM curve; 3, TM increasing (decreasing) if and only if MM 0 ( MM 0 ); 4, If TM is at maximum or minimum, then MM = 0; 5, AM increasing (decreasing) if and only if MM AM ( MM AM ); 6, If AM is at maximum or minimum, then MM = AM, or MM cuts AM at the latter’s maximum or minimum. Economics proceeds by developing Models of social phenomena. By a model we mean a simplified representation of reality. Exogenous variables: taken as determined by factors not discussed in a model. The optimization principle: People try to choose what’s best for them. The demand curve: A curve that relates the quantity demanded to price. From peoples reservation prices to the demand curve. Pareto efficiency: