Markets and Market Failure in the Real Situations
API 105
Subject & Catalog Number
Course Information
Description
The course focuses on instances where the standard models of perfectly competitive markets do not accurately describe a real-world event, occurrence or behavior. The course is intended to highlight areas and topics where the basic models of supply and demand do not function because some of the underlying assumptions do not hold: Perfect Information, Identical Goods or Services, No Market Power, Ease of Entry into Markets, Infinite Buyers and Sellers. The course will work through markets and situations where these some of these assumptions do not hold and we will investigate what occurs in those situations. In analyzing these cases, we will begin to understand how economic and public policy analysis tools can be used to understand where and when programs or policies do not achieve their intended outcomes.
Course Notes
API-105 may not be taken for credit after having taken API-109 or API-111. MPP students may not take API-105 for credit.
Available for Harvard Cross Registration
