Course Introduction

NCC5020 Microeconomics for Management is a mandatory course for both the one-year and two-year MBA programs at Cornell University. I have served as the Head Teaching Assistant (TA) for Professor Yi Chen and Professor Michael Waldman, assisting with the course during the summer of 2019 and 2020 and during the fall of 2019.

In my capacity as Head TA, I was responsible for organizing and conducting office hours, holding special TA sessions, and grading. Additionally, I served as the primary point of contact for communication among the TA team whenever any second-year MBA students serving as TAs.

Course Material

Professor Michael Waldman and Yi Chen cover slightly different materials in their class.

  • How the market works: profit maximization, supply and demand, equilibrium price, taxation, indifference curve, elasticity, opportunity cost, fixed cost, variable costs, short-run and long-run cost curves, perfect competition.
  • Market power: marginal revenue, monopoly, consumer surplus, price discrimination, two part pricing, oligopoly.
  • Additional topics: monopsony, information, moral hazard, adverse selection, strategic experimentation.