International Business Consulting

The MBA-program IBC prepares for an international career in external or in-house consulting, controlling, or project management within any industry
Application
Business Department

Modul Manual

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Microeconomics

Prerequisite

Basics in mathematics.
Teaching methods Lecture
Learning target / Competences

After completing the module, students should be able to

  • Understand that economics is about the allocation of scarce resources, that scarcity forces choices and that every choice has an opportunity cost.
  • Understand how comparative advantage provides the basis for gains through trade.
  • List the determinants of the demand and supply for a good in a competitive market and explain how demand and supply together determine equilibrium price.
  • Understand the role of prices in allocating scarce resources in market economies and explain the consequences of government price controls.
  • Understand the costs of production and how profit-maximizing firms determine how much to produce. Be able to distinguish between long-run decisions and short-run decisions.
  • Distinguish between perfect competetion and imperfect competition and be able to explain the welfare loss in non-competitive markets.
  • Understand the interdependence of market structure and firm behavior in specific industries.
Duration 1
SWS 2.0
Overview
Classes 22,5 h
Individual / Group work: 67,5 h
Workload 90 h
ECTS 3.0
Credits and grades

The course will be finalized with a closed‐book final exam. Duration of the exam will be 60 min. Students will have to evaluate and apply concepts and techniques used in Microeconomics. The course grade will be based on the written exam.

The module grade is factored in 4/90 in the final grade.

 
Responsible person

Prof. Dr. Hans-Jörg Weiß
Maximum number of participants 20
Recommended semester 1
Frequency Annually (ws)
Usability

The content of the module can also be used for the University's own part-time program "General Management".
Lectures

Microeconomics

Type Vorlesung
Nr. IBC-02-01
SWS 2.0
Content

Microeconomics is about the allocation of scarce resources. Its analytical starting point is the behavior of individual economic units. These units include consumers, workers, investors, owners of land, business firms etc. More generally, any individual or entity that plays a role in the functioning of our economy can be the subject of microeconomic analysis. Microeconomics explains how and why these units make economic decisions.

Another important concern of microeconomics is how economic units interact to form larger entities, especially markets and industries. By studying the behavior and interaction of individual firms and consumers, microeconomics reveals the determinants of equilibrium market prices and quantities, how industries and markets evolve, why they differ from one another, and how they are affected by government policies and global economic conditions.

The lecture contains an introduction into a part of microeconomics called industrial organization. This is the study of how market performance in a specific industry depends on market structure and market conduct. For example, industrial organization addresses the question, how the number of firms affects pricing decisions of individual firms and the efficiency of the overall outcome.
Literature

Mankiw, N. Gregory/Taylor, Mark P. (2020), Microeconomics, 5th Edition, Cengage Learning.

Pindyck, Robert S./Rubinfeld, Daniel L. (2017), Microeconomics, 9th Edition, Pearson Education.

Further recommended readings are given in the lecture.

A comprehensive set of lecture slides will be provided.
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