Microeconomics for Public Policy

Microeconomics is the study of how the economy works as a result of myriad decisions by individual agents (households, firms) in interaction among themselves and with public authorities. This course, taught at the intermediate level, starts from understanding how markets work. It then moves to considering the appropriateness of government interventions in functioning markets. The second half of the course is devoted to understanding market failures, government interventions to rectify those failures and the evaluation of those interventions.