Microeconomics and macroeconomics tutoring in English
An economics tutor for students on English-taught business programmes in Spain, covering both microeconomics and macroeconomics. One to one, online, and at whatever hour works for you, including the week before the exam.
Economics rewards a particular habit: reading the graph before reaching for the algebra. Most exam questions can be half-answered from a well-drawn diagram, and the calculation then just confirms what the picture already told you. That is the habit we build.
Consumer theory and demand
Preferences, indifference curves and the budget constraint, then the optimum where the marginal rate of substitution equals the price ratio. From there we derive the demand curve, and separate a price change into its substitution and income effects. We cover elasticity properly, price, income and cross elasticity, because the sign and the magnitude both carry meaning and exam questions test whether you can interpret them rather than just compute them.
Production, costs and the supply side
The production function, marginal and average product, and why diminishing returns show up in the shape of the cost curves. Fixed, variable, total, average and marginal cost, and the relationships between them, in particular why marginal cost cuts average cost at its minimum. Then the distinction between the short run and the long run, returns to scale, and the shutdown decision, which is the classic question about when a loss-making firm should still keep producing.
Market structures, from perfect competition to oligopoly
Perfect competition and the zero economic profit result in the long run. Monopoly, where price is set above marginal cost and the Lerner index measures by how much, along with deadweight loss and price discrimination. Then the awkward middle: monopolistic competition, and oligopoly with Cournot, Bertrand and Stackelberg, plus the game theory basics you need for the Nash equilibrium questions that always appear.
National accounts and aggregate demand
The macro half starts with measurement: what GDP includes and excludes, nominal against real, the deflator against the consumer price index, and the three equivalent ways of computing it. Then the components of aggregate demand, the consumption function, the multiplier, and why the multiplier is smaller once you allow for taxes and imports. Getting the accounting identities right here saves you throughout the rest of the module.
The IS-LM model and policy
Building the IS curve from goods market equilibrium and the LM curve from money market equilibrium, then reading the two together. What shifts each curve, how fiscal and monetary policy work through them, and crowding out. We extend into aggregate supply and demand, look at the short-run and long-run outcomes, and cover inflation, unemployment and the Phillips curve, plus the open economy version if your syllabus goes there.
If your module is called something else
Economics is split and labelled differently in almost every programme, and the first-year module often covers both halves at once. If yours is one of these, the content on this page is what it asks for:
- Principles of Economics — the first-year module that covers micro and macro together, from the standard textbook title.
- Introduction to Economics — the same thing under the plain name, usually one semester.
- Microeconomics I and II — consumer and producer theory first, then market structures, welfare and market failure.
- Macroeconomics I and II — national accounts and aggregate demand first, then IS-LM, policy and the open economy.
- Intermediate Microeconomics — the second-year course: the same models worked properly, with the algebra rather than only the graphs.
- Economic Theory — the formal naming, more weight on the model and on deriving the results.
- Political Economy — the translation of economía política, which in Spanish degrees is normally the introductory economics module.
- Economic Environment — the applied naming, from entorno económico: the macro half plus current indicators.
- Microeconomía y Macroeconomía — the same syllabus taught in Spanish, if you would rather have the lessons in the language of your exam.
The tools are the same in all of them: demand and supply, elasticity, costs and market structures on the micro side, and national accounts, aggregate demand, IS-LM and policy on the macro side. What changes is how much algebra your lecturer wants next to the graphs, and that is the first thing to pin down.
How the lessons work
Video call, one to one, with a whiteboard where we draw every diagram from scratch rather than pasting a finished one. No fixed timetable, no packages. Send me your lecturer's slides and past papers and we work in that framework, because economics notation varies a lot between courses and the exam expects the version you were taught.
Where almost everyone gets stuck
Confusing a movement along a curve with a shift of it
A change in the good's own price moves you along the demand curve. A change in income, tastes or the price of a related good shifts the whole curve. Getting this backwards turns a correct explanation into a wrong one, and it is examined in almost every paper because it reveals whether the model is actually understood.
Setting price equal to marginal cost for a monopolist
Every firm maximises profit where marginal revenue equals marginal cost. Under perfect competition price equals marginal revenue, so the shortcut works. A monopolist faces a downward-sloping demand curve, so marginal revenue is below price and the two are not interchangeable. Find the quantity from MR = MC, then read the price off the demand curve.
Treating fixed costs as if they mattered to the output decision
Fixed costs affect whether the firm is profitable, not how much it should produce. The output decision compares marginal revenue with marginal cost, and fixed costs appear in neither. They come back in when you ask whether to shut down in the long run, which is a different question.
Worked example: monopoly with linear demand, price, quantity, profit and Lerner
A monopolist faces the inverse demand function P = 100 - 2Q and has a total cost function TC(Q) = 20Q + 100. Find the profit-maximising quantity and price, the profit obtained and the Lerner index. Also work out what quantity would be produced under perfect competition.
- Total revenue: TR = P x Q = (100 - 2Q) x Q = 100Q - 2Q^2. Differentiating with respect to Q, marginal revenue is MR = 100 - 4Q.
- Marginal cost: differentiating TC = 20Q + 100 gives MC = 20, a constant. The fixed cost of 100 does not affect the output decision, only the final profit.
- Profit-maximising condition: MR = MC, so 100 - 4Q = 20, giving 4Q = 80 and Q = 20 units. Substituting into the demand function: P = 100 - 2 x 20 = 60 euros.
- Profit: TR = 60 x 20 = 1,200 euros; TC = 20 x 20 + 100 = 500 euros. Profit = 1,200 - 500 = 700 euros.
- Lerner index: L = (P - MC)/P = (60 - 20)/60 = 0.667. It is consistent with 1/|Ed|, because at that point |Ed| = (1/2) x (60/20) = 1.5 and 1/1.5 = 0.667. Under perfect competition output would be where P = MC: 100 - 2Q = 20, so Q = 40 units.
SolutionQ = 20 units, P = 60 euros, profit = 700 euros and a Lerner index of 0.667. The perfectly competitive quantity would be Q = 40 units, double the monopoly output.
About these lessons in particular
Do you cover both micro and macro, or do I have to choose?
Both, and often in the same session if you have the two modules running at once. Tell me which topics are coming up and we plan around your exam dates.
My course uses different notation from the textbook. Does that matter?
It matters a lot, and it is the main reason I ask for your lecturer's slides before we start. We use the notation your exam uses, not a generic version.
Can we do this in English?
Yes, the entire module. I live and study in the United States, so English is where I work daily, and we can switch to Spanish for anything that is clearer that way.
Is it the same module if mine is called Principles of Economics?
Yes. Principles of Economics is the usual name for the first-year module that covers both halves, and this page covers both. If yours only does the micro half this semester, we can work on that alone and leave macro for the next one.
Why does the IS-LM model never quite click?
Because it is two markets at once and most people try to learn it as a picture. It works when you read each curve as what it actually is: IS is every combination of output and interest rate where the goods market clears, LM the same for the money market. Once each shift is tied to the equation behind it, the policy questions stop being memory work.
Can we do only microeconomics?
Yes, and it is the more common half to need help with. Consumer theory, costs and market structures are self-contained, and plenty of programmes examine micro and macro separately anyway.
Do I need the graphs or the maths for the exam?
Usually both, and in a specific order: the graph to see what happens and the algebra to prove it. We practise going from one to the other, because exam questions tend to ask for the diagram and then for the number, and losing the connection between them is what makes this module feel harder than it is.
Is there an economics tutor in English for a Spanish university course?
Yes, for both halves of it. On the micro side, consumer and producer surplus, the effect of a tax and who really pays it, and market failures; on the macro side, national accounts, aggregate demand and supply, and monetary and fiscal policy. Depending on your faculty the module is Principles of Economics, Introduction to Economics, Intermediate Microeconomics, Economic Environment or simply Microeconomia and Macroeconomia. The graphs are the part that decides the exam mark, and we draw them together on screen.
I also teach
Shall we work on it together?
Tell me where you are, which university you are at and when the exam is. I will get back to you as soon as I can.