Mikroökonomen

Mikroökonomen are economists who specialize in microeconomics—the study of how individuals, households, and firms allocate scarce resources. They examine decision making under constraints, how preferences, prices, and information shape choices, and how these choices interact in markets to determine prices, outputs, and welfare. The core theories include utility maximization for consumers and profit maximization for firms, subject to budget and production constraints.

Key topics and models include demand and supply, elasticity, consumer and producer surplus, and welfare analysis. Mikroökonomen study market structures such as perfect competition, monopoly, oligopoly, and monopolistic competition, and analyze pricing strategies, competition, and market power. They also investigate information problems, such as adverse selection and moral hazard, and how signaling and screening affect market outcomes.

Methodologically, mikroökonomen use theoretical models and mathematical optimization, along with empirical tools like econometrics and experimental or field data. Increasingly, they employ laboratory and field experiments, natural experiments, and computational methods to test theories and assess policy effects.

Subfields encompass labor economics, industrial organization, behavioral microeconomics, environmental and health economics, development economics, and public economics. Mikroökonomen contribute to policy design by evaluating welfare effects, efficiency, and equity of interventions such as taxes, subsidies, price controls, and regulation.

Education and career paths typically involve doctoral training; most mikroökonomen work in universities, research institutes, government agencies, think tanks, or private firms. Their research informs public policy, business strategy, and broader understanding of economic decision making.