The course develops analytical, quantitative, and strategic reasoning skills that are highly valued in both academic and professional environments. In particular, it cultivates competences related to model-based economic analysis, decision-making under constraints, strategic interaction, and formal reasoning. These skills are essential in several professional fields, including consulting (strategy, pricing, competition analysis), finance (risk analysis, incentives), public policy (regulatory authorities, international organizations), and data-driven occupations involving economic modelling and applied analysis. At the same time, the course provides students with the theoretical and methodological background required for postgraduate studies in economics and related disciplines. Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Knowledge

– Demonstrate advanced understanding of the neoclassical microeconomic framework, including rational choice, optimization, equilibrium, and welfare analysis.
– Explain the theoretical foundations of consumer and producer behaviour under conditions of scarcity and strategic interaction.
– Describe advanced microeconomic concepts and models, including Nash equilibrium, oligopolistic competition, asymmetric information, adverse selection, moral hazard, signalling, screening, and principal–agent relationships.
– Identify the main extensions and limitations of the standard neoclassical model, including insights from behavioural economics.

Skills

– Apply formal microeconomic methods and mathematical tools to solve constrained optimization problems.
– Construct and analyse economic models of consumer behaviour, firm behaviour, strategic interaction, and information asymmetries.
– Analyse static and dynamic games and derive equilibrium outcomes using rigorous analytical reasoning.
– Use formal economic reasoning and model-based analysis to interpret real-world economic phenomena and policy problems.
– Evaluate the effects of market structures and incentives on economic outcomes.

Competences

– Assess market efficiency and economic outcomes using welfare and Pareto-efficiency criteria.
– Translate complex real-world problems into formal economic frameworks suitable for analytical investigation.
– Formulate evidence-based and theoretically grounded arguments in environments characterized by uncertainty and strategic interaction.
– Demonstrate advanced analytical and quantitative thinking skills consistent with the requirements of modern economics education and internationally competitive labour markets.
– Develop the theoretical and methodological background necessary for postgraduate study and advanced research in economics.

The course provides an advanced treatment of microeconomic theory based on the neoclassical analytical framework and its contemporary extensions. Emphasis is placed on formal modelling, optimization techniques, equilibrium analysis, and the application of microeconomic reasoning to strategic interaction, imperfect markets, and informational problems. The course is structured around the core areas of modern microeconomic analysis and introduces students to selected developments from behavioural economics. The indicative course content is organised in topics as follows:

Topic 1: Consumer Theory (Preferences, utility, and rational choice, Utility maximization under constraints, Duality theory and expenditure minimization, Demand functions and comparative statics, Intertemporal choice and choice under uncertainty)

Topic 2: Theory of the Firm (Production technology and production functions, Cost minimization and cost functions, Profit maximization, Firm supply decisions, Short-run and long-run analysis)

Topic 3: General Equilibrium and Welfare (Competitive equilibrium, Exchange economies and the Edgeworth box, Pareto efficiency, Fundamental welfare theorems, Market efficiency and welfare analysis)

Topic 4: Game Theory (Strategic-form games, Nash equilibrium, Mixed strategies, Dynamic games and subgame perfect equilibrium, Repeated games and strategic behaviour)

Topic 5: Imperfect Competition and Oligopolistic Markets (Cournot and Bertrand competition, Strategic pricing and quantity competition, Collusion and cooperation, Market power and industrial organization applications)

Topic 6: Information Economics (Asymmetric information, Adverse selection and moral hazard, Signalling and screening models, Principal–agent theory, Incentives and contract theory)

Topic 7: Behavioural Economics (Bounded rationality, Reference-dependent preferences and loss aversion, Heuristics and cognitive biases,  Behavioural game theory, Applications to consumer behaviour and public policy (“nudges”))

The course maintains a rigorous methodological foundation rooted in neoclassical microeconomic analysis while introducing students to important contemporary developments and applications relevant to modern economics research and policy analysis.

Lectures (3 hours/week)

The assessment language is Greek, and the assessment method consists of a final individual examination (100%) through a mixed process of a Multiple-Choice Questions test, Short Answer Questions, and Problem Solving.

e-class, e-mails, slides, software for problem solving, questionnaire design and graphs