Intermediate Microeconomics - Firms and Markets

Description

The focus of ECON208 is firm choices and their resulting market outcomes. The initial topic examines why firms exist and take the forms that they do. Then we study the basic characteristics and output choices any individual business makes. Next we look at industry supply resulting from combining all of the firms who exist in any highly competitive market. Firms require inputs such as employees, materials, and machines to produce their products which is the subject of the following topic. All other topics look at what happens when perfect competition fails to hold. The focus is on businesses acting strategically and what happens when businesses exploit market power. The beginning topic explores what happens when people and businesses act strategically. This leads on to firms having market power and strategically choosing prices, output, and whether or not to enter or exit a market. The last topic on auctions looks at a common way prices and quantities are determined in both competitive markets and markets where businesses have market power.