EconS 594, Ph.D. Industrial Organization

  1. Syllabus – EconS 594, Fall 2026.
  2. Presentations of published articles and students’ presentations Link.
  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.
      • Liu and Serfes (2004). Link.
    6. Chapter 9, Menu pricing.
      • Menu pricing with two firms, summary of Ellison (2005). Link.
      • Nonlinear pricing with two firms, summary of Amstrong and Vickers (2001). Handout and Slides.
    7. Chapter 14, Cartels and tacit collusion.
      • Collusion with one-period punishment, Link.
      • Auditing collusion, leniency, and whistleblower programs, Aubert et al. (2006), Link.
      • 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.
    10. Chapter 19, Intellectual Property.
  4. Applications to Environmental Economics:
    1. Environmental Regulation using Game Theory tools. Slides.
    2. Behavioral Environmental Economics: Theory and Experiments. Slides.
    3. Bayesian Persuasion, A First Introduction to Four papers. Handout.
    4. Eco-Labeling with Noisy Certification Tests, Mason (2011), handout and slides.
    5. Penetration vs. Skimming for Credence Products, Mahenc (2025), handout and slides.
    6. Regulation in Mixed Oligopolies. Slides.
    7. Models about Investments in Abatement:
      • Green innovation, Sept. 23rd. Book chapter and Slides.
      • Environmental Regulation under Sequential Competition, JEBO, Sept. 25th. Slides and article.
      • Greener or Cheaper: Economies of Scope in Green R&D, JEEM, Sept. 30th Slides and article.
      • Abatement Thresholds, Oct. 2nd, Slides.
  5. Econ Web Tutor in Graduate Industrial Organization (adaptive multiple choice questions to practice basic models).
  6. 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.
  7. 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.