Microeconomic Theory - Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

• This web page contains information about Microeconomic Theory, a compulsory class in the undergraduate programs in Economics, and the dual undergraduate degrees in Law and Economics and International Studies and Economics. The class is taught in the first semester of academic year 2021-22 at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid in Spain.

• This page is meant for students considering enrolling as remote guest students in the Remote Student Exchange (RSE) initiative that is sponsored by the International Economic Association and is addressed to students from low- and middle-income countries.

• For more information on the program, eligibility, admissions, offered classes, etc., you are strongly encouraged to consult the student FAQ page at RSE.

• The reason we are opening the class to guest students enrolled in the RSE initiative is simply that we suscribe 100% to the view described in the their FAQ page: "We connect students from low- and middle-income countries with professors from everywhere. Students can participate in the classes offered by these professors remotely and free of charge. They do not receive official grades. They add diversity and interesting new perspectives to the class, which will benefit both them and the regular students."

Universidad Carlos III de Madrid is a public university in Spain. Many, though not all programs are offered in English. For more information on Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (research, teaching, position in rankings, etc.), please, refer to the University home page or the Department of Economics home page.

• The class can be characterized as a second intermediate microeconomics class.

• Students are expected to have a sufficient background in calculus and optimization for firms and consumers and be used to solving simple mathematical problems. Some knowledge of game theory (Nash equilibrium and Subgame Perfect Nash equilibrium) is useful but not essential.

  • Students at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, typically take the class after having taken two semesters of math and a semester of intermediate microeconomics and at the same time as they take a game theory class. For further details you can consult the program for the undergraduate degree in Economics).

  • Past exchange students who did not have the same background as Universidad Carlos III de Madrid regular students but had sufficient familiarity with mathematical reasoning have not had problems performing well and even very well.

• The class is about equilibrium and efficiency in exchange and production economies and about externalities. We do not delve into theoretical issues (such as existence, uniqueness, and so on) or proofs (we provide sketches of proofs of the first and the second welfare theorem, but do not expect students to be able to replicate them). Emphasis is placed instead on the ability of students to work out the details of economic models as a way to get familiarized with the concepts of equilibrium and efficiency, to understand why in certain environments (competitive economies) equilibria are efficient and in others (externalities) are not as well as understand the range and the scope of applicability of basic economic principles.

• From a theoretical point of view the class does not go much beyond what one could find in classic intermediate microeconomics textbook (such as Varian's Intermediate Microeconomics) but the exercises that are the basis for teaching and evaluations are typically harder.

• Details on the class are described in the Syllabus available for download below.

Because the purpose of the class is to walk students through the details of theoretical economic models, until the end of 2019, the class was typically taught using regular blackboards. With the onset of the pandemic and the need to teach online we attempted to preserve the spirit of the class and we started using iPads in online classes. While there's no denying that being in the same room is very valuable, there's also no denying using iPads has a number of advantages, that include the possibility of recording classes and making all class material available to students. For this reason, despite the current plan of in-presence teaching for the first semester of 2021-22, we have decided to teach the class in hybrid format. The class will be taught in a regular classroom, but it will also be available online for regular Universidad Carlos III de Madrid students enrolled in the class and guest students enrolled in the Remote Exchange Student initiative.

• Classes start on Monday September 6, 2021 and end on Friday, December 10, 2021.

• Classes meet on Mondays, 10:45-12:15 (CET) and Fridays, 10:45-12:15 (CET).

• Classes will be broadcast with some video conferencing solution, such as Google Meet, but we cannot confirm yet. To follow classes in real time you will need some device (a computer, a tablet, even a smartphone) with an internet connection sufficient to participate in a video conference. If you want to aks questions during the class you will need to have a working microphone. Having a working webcam would be better but is not essential for class meetings.

Marco Celentani (Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at UC3M), Camila Steffens (Graduate Student in the PhD Program in Economics at UC3M), Juan Quintana (Adjunct Professor in the Department of Economics at UC3M).

Yes: classes are recorded and recordings as well all written material from classes will be made available to students a webpage students will be granted access to once they have been admitted.

• No official credit will be given to students who are not regularly enrolled at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.

• However, guest students enrolled in the Remote Student Exchange initiative can be evaluated just as regular students at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (details on dates, times, formats of the midterm and the final exam in the section titled When and how will exams take place?). They can then receive a letter of participation and a grade from Marco Celentani, the coordinator for the class, at the end of the course.

  • Grades will be on a scale from 0 to 10, with 5 being a passing grade.

  • The letter of participation will also include the percentile of the grade compared to students enrolled in the class at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. In addition, the President of the IEA will provide a congratulatory letter to students in these courses.

  • Please, notice: These grades and letters do not amount to official university course credit.

Our intention is to let all students have access to the same resources and therefore also to make appointments for individual or group tutorials. We hope that this will be possible, but depending on the burden on the instructors we may have to think of ways the workload sustainable.

• Evaluation is based on a midterm exam and a final exam that will be both online.

• The midterm exam will be scheduled in the week of November 1, 2021 (the exact date and the time will be communicated ASAP, probably before September 30, 201).

• The final exam is scheduled on January 11, 2022 at 12:00 noon (CET). There is a possibility that another date will also be set between December 15 and 22, 2021, but this is neither confirmed, nor guaranteed. Students who do not pass the regular final exam have a second chance with a retake exam that will take place between June 20 and July 1, 2022 (no dates and times have been set by yet).

• For online exams students will need to be in a room by themselves and join in a videoconference with their webcams on for proctoring purposes. Please, notice that we may require the use of two separate webcams (for instance a computer webcam for a front view and a smartphone with a rear view). More details will be given later on.

• To get a sense of the class we provide below:

  • Syllabus;

  • Problem Sets 0, 1, 2, and 3;

  • Some old exams.

• Once you apply for admission as guest student under the RSE initiative and are admitted to the course, you will be granted access to a Moodle page that will be used for the class and that will include additional documentation:

  • Old exams with solutions

  • Some background videos and handwritten material (for some exercises or some background material that will not be covered in class);

  • Video recordings of classes;

  • Handwritten material from classes.

You need to do the following:

• Apply for admission in the RSE initiative web page;

• Fill out the following Google Form (and include all required information and files).