ADVANCED MICROECONOMICS

Advanced Microeconomics – A Graduate-Level Framework Author: Akhilesh Chandra Prabhakar This textbook provides a structured and analytical approach to microeconomic theory for graduate students, researchers, and policymakers. It blends theory with real-world applications to develop a deep understanding of market behaviour, decision-making, and welfare economics. Key Features and Topics: 1. Scope of Microeconomics Focuses on individual units like consumers and firms, exploring: Consumer and producer theory Market equilibrium and welfare economics Market failures and strategic behaviour Optimization and marginal analysis 2. Consumer Theory Analyzes consumer choices under constraints using: Utility functions and indifference curves Lagrangian optimization and consumer equilibrium Hicksian vs. Marshallian demand and Slutsky decomposition 3. Production and Costs Examines firm behaviour and cost structures: Short-run vs. long-run production Isoquants, isocosts, and cost minimization Economies of scale and marginal cost 4. Market Structures Covers key market forms and firm strategies: Perfect competition and monopoly Monopolistic competition and oligopoly Game-theoretic models: Cournot, Bertrand, Stackelberg 5. Factor Pricing Explains pricing of inputs like land, labour, and capital: Marginal productivity theory Theories of rent, wages, interest, and profit 6. Welfare Economics Assesses efficiency and equity in resource allocation: Pareto efficiency and compensation principles Social welfare functions and Arrow’s Theorem 7. Market Failures and Government Intervention Explores when and how governments should intervene: Externalities and Pigouvian taxes Public goods and asymmetric information Regulation of monopolies and market power 8. Game Theory and Strategic Behaviour Provides tools for analyzing interactive decisions: Nash equilibrium, dominant strategies Repeated games, collusion, and auctions 9. General Equilibrium Analysis Studies the economy as a whole system: Edgeworth box and Walrasian equilibrium Inter-market relationships and efficiency conditions 10. Public Economics and Social Choice Connects micro theory with policy-making: Taxation, public spending, and voting systems Tiebout model and cost-benefit analysis 11. Behavioural and Experimental Economics Examines decision-making beyond full rationality: Heuristics, biases, and prospect theory Experimental methods and behavioural insights 12. Information Economics Analyzes markets with asymmetric information: Moral hazard, adverse selection Principal-agent problems and signalling 13. Labour Market and Income Distribution Human capital theory Measures and causes of income disparity Discrimination and redistributive policies 14. Environmental Economics Externalities, pollution, and green policy tools Resource valuation and management 15. Applied Microeconomics Applies microeconomic tools to real sectors: Agriculture, health, education, and industry Development and regulatory economics