Elements of Economics

The present text arose out of a course I held at the "Prima Scuola Estiva di Teoria dei Giochi e delle Decisioni in Economia" at Nuoro, Sardegna, in 1988. The purpose of that course was to introduce within a week's time some of the most fundamental concepts and principles in economics to a group of mathematics graduates. I chose to put the emphasis on providing as much intuition as possible, given the time constraint. This implied that I had to be shorter on formal elaborations and demonstrations. As far as these are given, however, I took care to present them in a coherent and rigirous way.