Organization
The lectures will take place on Mondays 16-18 in S.R42.5.107 at the following dates:
- February 6, 13, 20, 27
- March 5,12,19,26
- April 16, 23, 30
- May 7
Consult this page for changes in the dates of lectures or other information about the class.
The TAs for the course are Alessandro Di Chiara (email) and Roberto Venturini (email). Contact them first for questions about the course and the problem sets. The review sessions will take place on Thursdays in room R42.4.110.
Official ULB page for the course
Objectives
Prior knowledge of basic industrial organization models (oligopolies) as well as a reasonable level in game theory and information economics will be assumed. We will use tools from industrial organization and information economics to understand how the functioning of markets, the strategies of firms and consumers are affected when we depart form the standard assumptions of perfect, symmetric information or when significant externalities are present. The topics chosen in this course may vary from year to year.
There will be regular problem sets (which will not be graded) and a final written exam.
Students' Presentations
(Links to pdfs are available after login by following the link "documentation" in the relevant lecture.)
- February 20, Advertising, paper: Butters, G. (1977), Equilibrium distributions of sales and advertising prices," Review of Economic Studies, 44, 465-491.
- February 27, Search, paper: Diamond, P. (1971) " A Model of Price Adjustment," Journal of Economic Theory.
- March 12, Entry, paper: Aghion and Bolton (1987), "Contracts as a Barrier to Entry," American Economic Review.
- March 19, Collusion, paper: Kühn, Kai-Uwe. 2001. “Fighting Collusion by Regulating Communication Between Firms.” Economic Policy 16 (32) (April): 167–204.
- March 26, Mergers, paper: Farrell, Joseph, and Carl Shapiro. 1990. “Horizontal Mergers: an Equilibrium Analysis.” The American Economic Review 80 (1) (March 1): 107–126.
- April 16, Vertical Agreements, paper: Rey, P, and J Tirole. 1986. “The Logic of Vertical Restraints.” The American Economic Review 76 (5): 921–939.
- April 23, Bundling, paper: "Bundling as an Entry Barrier", working paper version of the same paper published in Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2004,
- April 30, Networks, paper: One Sided Logic in Two Sided Markets Jullian Wright, Review of Network Economics 2004.
- May 7, Standardization, paper: Coordination Through Committees or Markets, Joseph Farrell and Gart Saloner, Rand Journal of Economics (1988).
- May 14, Theory of the Firm, paper: The Costs and Benefits of Ownership: A Theory of Vertical and Lateral Integration, Sanford Grossmann and Oliver Hart, Journal of Political Economy (1986).
