EC411      One Unit
Microeconomics

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Availability

Requisites

Pre-requisites:

Students must have completed EC400 before taking this course.

Additional requisites:

In exceptional circumstances, students may enrol in the course without EC400 provided they meet the necessary requirements and have received approval from the course conveners (at a face-to-face meeting), the MSc Economics Programme Director and their own Programme Director. Contact the Department of Economics for more information (econ.msc@lse.ac.uk) regarding entry to this course.

The aim of the course is to develop the basic tools for analysing problems of resource allocation used by economists working in research, government and business. The course deals with positive and normative problems. It aims to include modern developments without being overly mathematical, and to develop a capacity to apply economic concepts to real-world problems. The first part of the course focuses on classical theories of decision making, market behaviour, and strategic interaction. We begin by presenting decision theoretic foundations of choice behaviour, by analysing the optimisation problems faced by consumers and firms, and by modelling market interactions and the formation of prices in perfectly competitive markets. Then we study models of decision making under uncertainty and game theoretic solution concepts. Novel developments in these fields are also discussed in lectures. The second part of the course focuses on models of imperfect competition and information economics. We begin with an analysis of models of monopoly, oligopoly, product differentiation, and public goods. Then, we study markets with imperfect and incomplete information including search, adverse selection, auctions, signalling, screening, and moral hazard. Special emphasis will be given to economic applications.

1 hours of seminars in the Spring Term.
20 hours of lectures and 9 hours of seminars in the Winter Term.
20 hours of lectures and 9 hours of seminars in the Autumn Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn and Winter Term.

This course is delivered through a combination of classes and lectures totalling a minimum of 59 hours across Autumn Term, Winter Term and Spring Term.

Weekly problem sets and two marked assignments per term which will contribute to the coursework mark.

The course will draw on a variety of texts, the main ones being:

1. J G Riley, Essential Microeconomics, Cambridge.
2. J R Green, A Mas-Colell & M D Whinston, Microeconomic Theory, Oxford.
 

More detailed readings will be given at the beginning of the course.
Some notes will be provided where textbook coverage is inadequate.

Exam (45%), duration: 120 Minutes, reading time: 15 minutes in the January exam period

Exam (45%), duration: 120 Minutes, reading time: 15 minutes in the Spring exam period

Continuous assessment (10%)

This course is IRDAP-enabled, meaning that resit and deferred assessments will take place in August 2026.