School of Politics, Economics and

International Relations

WELCOME

Dr Steven Bosworth

EC301 Advanced Microeconomics – 25 September 2023

1
ABOUT ME
• Dr Steven Bosworth ✈ 🚢

• Contact:
• E-mail: s.j.bosworth@reading.ac.uk
• Edith Morley 185a

• Feedback & Consultation hours: (drop in)

• Mondays 10:30 – 12:00
• Fridays 12:30 – 14:00
• Or, book an appointment (hours vary)
https://outlook.office365.com/owa/calendar/UniversityofReading20612
645@livereadingac.onmicrosoft.com/bookings/
ORGANISATION BASICS

• Lecture every Monday 15:00 – 17:00 Mathematics 100*

• Online lecture material via PP recorded slides
• Yuja – see module playlist
• Download & print or listen directly in PowerPoint

3
* a few sessions may be different – check your timetable!
ORGANISATION BASICS

• Tutorials
• Fridays 11:00-12:00 Mathematics 100
• Lecture material for each week has corresponding problem set
released Monday morning
• This problem set is discussed the Friday morning of that week
• E.g. Today a problem set has gone up on Bb and will be
discussed 11a on 29 Sep.

4
ORGANISATION BASICS

• All necessary information is posted on Blackboard: consult roadmap;

slides will be posted following lectures on Mondays, plus exercises for
that week’s tutorials
• Requisites for this class: basic calculus, producer/consumer theory and
game theory basics from EC201
• Revise materials weekly, as the material builds up and subsequent
lectures may be difficult to follow otherwise

5
TUTORIAL CLASSES ON
FRIDAY MORNINGS
• I will post problem sets Monday based on material of that week’s lecture;
• it is highly recommended you solve these at home before tutorials:
1. revise materials from class
2. try to solve exercises
3. in case of difficulties, start over
• The tutorial hour on Friday mornings will be used to solve these problems; I will
explain the solutions
• Do not wait for this hour to solve the problems: this creates the illusion
that you understand them better than you do
• The final exam will be made up of similar, but distinct, problems; if you can solve
the exercises, you should have no problem solving the exam problems
• The first tutorial is timetabled for this Fri. 29 Sep.

6
BUILDING BLOCKS OF MODULE
• The course is structured around three main themes, which are
connected to each other:
1. Individual decision making under risk and over time
2. Fundamentals of game theory
3. Oligopolistic markets
• Individual decision theory and game theory share a common origin;
difference: in game theory there may be uncertainty from other’s
actions in some settings, rather than from nature
• Oligopoly theory can be seen as an application of game theory to
industrial organisation
7
ASSESSMENT

• Group applied project (40%), electronic submission, by Monday 15th

January 2024), online submission on Bb
• Details to follow
• Summer exam (60%)
• Part 3 Exams will be returning to an in-person format and take
place over 3 hours
• The paper will be similarly structured to previous years and
designed to be completed within 3 hours
• More specifics to follow

8
LITERATURE AND RESOURCES

• The main books for the course

are Herbert Gintis’s Game
Theory Evolving; and The
Bounds of Reason
• Recommended but not required
• Electronic copies can be
accessed through library
catalogue on-campus, or Bb
• Slides
• Solutions to exercises to be posted
after tutorials
9