BINDURA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE EDUCATION
FACULTY OF COMMERCE
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
Semester: Aug-Nov 2025
EC213: Microeconomics
Instructor:
B. Dube; 0778173947, Office 10 Commerce Building, email; [email protected]
Consulting Time: by appointment
Purpose
The course aims to furnish students with decision-making structures and procedures of
consumers and firms both as individuals and as market participants. It further explores
the structure and performance of markets, income distribution, and welfare analysis.
Goals
The course seeks to deepen students’ understanding of concepts learned in the
microeconomics part of Introductory Economics, to introduce them to a range of new
analytical tools, and to help them gain facility with using these tools in an active manner.
The course is also intended to help students develop the ability to apply microeconomic
theory to a range of behaviors and problems in research frameworks.
Course Outline
Week Lecture Hrs Content
(4 hrs each)
1 1 THEORY OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
The budget constraint, properties of the budget constraint,
changes in the budget line, subsidies, and rationing.
2 Preferences: Consumer Preferences, Cobb Douglas preferences,
Indifference curves, substitutes
3 complements, well behaved preferences, marginal rate of
substitution, implications of the MRS conditions
4 Utility: Cardinal Utility, ordinal Utility, construction of a utility
function and maximization of utility.
2 1 Demand: Elasticity concept, Optimal choice, consumer demand,
normal and inferior goods, income offer curves, price offer
curve, the offer curve and the demand curve
2 Substitution and Income Effect: The substitution effect, the
income effect, the Slutsky equation,
3 Hicksian substitution effect, Compensated demand functions,
Homothetic preferences
4 Tutorial 1
3 1 THEORY OF PRODUCTION
Production Theory: Production functions, diminishing
marginal productivity, isoquant maps, the rate of technical
2 substitution,
the elasticity of demand, the elasticity of substitution, common
production functions, measuring and classifying technical
progress
3 &4
Inclass test
4 1 Theory of Costs: Cost function, cost minimization, returns to
scale and cost function, long run and short run costs. Cost
curves-Average costs, marginal costs, and variable and long run
2 costs.
Tutorial 2
3 Tutorial 3
THEORY OF THE FIRM
4 Perfect Competition: short run supply curve of the industry,
price determination in the short run, equilibrium in the short and
long run.
5 1 Monopoly: Monopoly market, profit maximization and output
choice,
2 Monopoly and resource allocation, inefficiency of monopoly,
natural monopoly.
Monopoly behavior, first degree and second-degree price
3&4 discrimination.
6 1&2 Oligopoly: Duopoly, Stackelberg model and reaction
functions
3 &4 General revision Test
Assessment Weight
2 In-Class Tests, 1 assignment and presentation 40%
Final Exam 60%
RECOMMENDED TEXTS
1. Varian, H. (2005), Intermediate Microeconomics (7th Edition). Norton, New
York
2. Perloff, J.M. (2009) Microeconomics(5th edition), Pearson New York
3. Nicholson, W. Snyder, C. (2008), Microeconomic Theory: Basic Principles
and Extensions (10th Edition). South-Western; Thomson.
4. Koutsoyiannis, A. (1979), Modern Microeconomics, (2nd Edition), ELBS
And any other relevant text.
5. Any other e-resources as recommended during lectures.
Course Outline Review Panel
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Approved by the Chairman
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Approved by the Executive Dean
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