Starting from the assumption that students (are supposed to) have already acquired a sound background in basic general microeconomics, the first part of this graduate course intends to provide a comprehensive treatment of duality theory and its applications in modern microeconomics. Problems of consumer and producer optimization will be analysed in both primal and dual versions and functional relations among relevant variables will bediscussed as a theoretical introduction to the methods and results of microeconometric analysis of both consumer demand and production or cost functions.
The second part of the course will provide a graduate treatment of individual choice under uncertainty starting from expected utility and including topics such as measures of risk aversion, risk spreading and risk pooling.
The last part of the course deals with the basic issues of auction theory starting from the single object IPV models and the Revenue Equivalence Theorem under both risk neutrality and risk aversion. Multiunit auctions will be discussed with some reference to utility or procurement/permission markets organized as auctions (electricity, gas, C02, etc.). CV models will be only briefly discussed.

Students should bear in mind that

a) Topics such as games and oligopoly form part of the program of another microeconomic course (Advanced Microeconomics) delivered during the second year. In order to avoid useless duplications they are not considered here.

b) Topics such as moral hazard and adverse selection in the field of insurance will be covered in other courses (in particular Economics of Insurance/Economia delle Assicurazioni).