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LeadAfrik
Intermediate · Self-paced2026 Edition

Microeconomics for African Markets

Standard micro theory taught with examples from real African markets — fuel and bread incidence, banking concentration, mobile-money network effects, microcredit information asymmetry. Foundational for any economics student or policy analyst.

8

Modules

~7h 15m

Reading time

Intermediate

Level

Self-paced

Format

§

Syllabus

  1. 01

    Supply, demand, equilibrium

    Building blocks of microeconomics: supply and demand curves, elasticity, comparative statics, when markets clear and when they don't.

    ~50 minModule 01
    →
  2. 02

    Consumer choice and utility

    Indifference curves, budget constraints, optimal choice. Income effects, Engel's law, the Slutsky decomposition.

    ~55 minModule 02
    →
  3. 03

    Producer theory and costs

    Production functions, returns to scale, marginal-cost curves, profit maximisation, the small-firm productivity problem.

    ~55 minModule 03
    →
  4. 04

    Market structure — competition to monopoly

    Perfect competition, monopoly, oligopoly, natural monopoly. Application to Kenyan banking and telecoms concentration.

    ~60 minModule 04
    →
  5. 05

    Externalities and public goods

    Positive and negative externalities, Pigouvian taxes, the Coase theorem, tradeable permits, commons management.

    ~55 minModule 05
    →
  6. 06

    Asymmetric information

    Akerlof lemons, adverse selection, moral hazard, signalling/screening. Microcredit group lending as a response.

    ~55 minModule 06
    →
  7. 07

    Game theory for markets

    Nash equilibrium, prisoner's dilemma, Cournot/Bertrand oligopoly, repeated games. East African cement and banking cartels.

    ~55 minModule 07
    →
  8. 08

    Behavioural frictions in markets

    Present bias in savings/borrowing, mental accounting, anchoring, social norms — bridging to behavioural economics.

    ~50 minModule 08
    →

How to use this course

Start with module 01 if the material is new; skip ahead if you have prior exposure. Each module is self-contained but the arc is sequential — the projects in the final module assume the toolkit from modules 1-11. Every module ends with key takeaways and a curated further-reading list with primary sources.