Course teacher(s)
Thierry LALLEMAND (Coordinator)ECTS credits
5
Language(s) of instruction
french
Course content
The course introduces the fundamental concepts of microeconomics, starting from first principles and progressively building economic intuition. It covers:
-
Introduction to microeconomic reasoning
Economic choices, incentives, opportunity cost, and the role of markets. -
Supply and demand
Market mechanisms, price formation, equilibrium, and comparative statics. -
Elasticity
Price, income, and cross‑price elasticities as practical tools to measure responsiveness and sensitivity. -
Consumer behavior
Preferences, budget constraints, consumer choice, and utility maximization. -
Theory of the firm
Production decisions, cost structures, profit maximization, and short‑run vs long‑run behavior. -
Market structures
Perfect competition, monopoly, oligopoly, and monopolistic competition, including pricing and market power. -
Introduction to strategic interactions
Basic concepts of game theory applied to oligopolistic markets and competitive strategies.
Objectives (and/or specific learning outcomes)
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
- ✅ Understand how markets function and how prices and quantities are formed
- ✅ Develop economic intuition to analyze real‑world market situations
- ✅ Analyze consumer and firm behavior under different market conditions
- ✅ Understand the sources and consequences of market power and competition
- ✅ Build a solid foundation for further training in economics, finance, regulation, strategy, or risk management
- ✅ Gain confidence in engaging with economic arguments, reports, and market analyses encountered in professional environments
Prerequisites and Corequisites
Required and Corequired knowledge and skills
No prior knowledge of economics is required; the course is designed as a structured entry point into microeconomic thinking.
Teaching methods and learning activities
The course follows a progressive and applied teaching approach, combining theory and practice:
- Clear and structured lectures, introducing concepts gradually and intuitively
- Graphical analysis to support understanding of market mechanisms
- Simple numerical applications to illustrate core ideas without technical complexity
- Practical exercises in almost every lesson, allowing participants to apply concepts immediately,
- Real‑world examples drawn from everyday markets and economic situations
Other information
Campus
Solbosch
Evaluation
Method(s) of evaluation
- written examination
written examination
Language(s) of evaluation
- french