EconS 594, Ph.D. Industrial Organization

  1. Syllabus – EconS 594, Fall 2020.
  2. Student presentations, tentative schedule.
  3. Slides:
    1. Chapter 3, Static imperfect competition.
      • Link to scanned chapter here.
      • Price competition with uncertain costs, Handout.
      • Strategic complementarities in oligopoly, Vives (2016). Link.
    2. Chapter 4, Dynamic imperfect competition.
    3. Chapter 5, Product differentiation.
      • Hotelling with quadratic transportation costs. Handout.
      • Vertical differentiation and natural monopoly, Handout.
    4. Chapter 6, Advertising.
      • Literature review (Handbook of Industrial Organization, Bagwell), Link.
    5. Chapter 8, Group and personalized pricing.
    6. Chapter 9, Menu pricing.
      • Menu pricing with two firms, Ellison (2005). Link.
      • Nonlinear pricing with two firms, Amstrong and Vickers (2001). Link.
    7. Chapter 14, Cartels and tacit collusion.
      • How do cartels operate? Harrington (2006), Link.
      • Theory of collusion and competition policy. Harrington, Link.
    8. Chapter 15, Horizontal mergers.
      • Mergers between several firms. Handout.
      • Mergers with synergies. Handout.
      • Cournot competition with n asymmetric firms, and mergers. Handout.
      • Can mergers facilitate collusion? Handout.
      • Horizontal mergers and antitrust policy (Handbook of Industrial Organization, Whinston), Link.
    9. Chapter 16, Strategic incumbents and entry.
      • Strategic pre-commitment, Link.
  4. Practice exercises in Industrial Organization: You can find more practice exercises in my book Industrial Organization: Practice Exercises with Answer Keys, with Pak-Sing Choi and Eric Dunaway. Link.
  5. Research and presentation resources:
    • Selecting a research topic:  Laibson (Harvard) and Pischke (LSE).
    • Advise on how to write an academic paper: Glaeser (Harvard) and Cochrane (Chicago).
    • Presentations and slides: Hansen (Wisconsin-Madison) and Davis (Columbia).
    • Short book “A Guide for the Young Economist,” MIT Press, Link.
  6. Homework assignments:
    1. Homework #1 – Answer key
    2. Homework #2 – Answer key
    3. Homework #3 – Answer key
  7. Midterm exam.
    1. Midterm exam (take-home). – Answer key