Instructor: Robin D. Hanson, Assoc. Professor, Economics
(rhanson@gmu.edu, http://hanson.gmu.edu)
Office Hours: Officially Wednesday 6-7p, but I'm usually in at Carow Hall 10B. Email or call ahead (703-993-2326) if you want to be sure I'll be in, of you want to meet somewhere besides my office.
Catalog Entry:
Econ 844 Industrial Organization and Public Policy I (3:3:0). Prerequisite: ECON 611 or permission of instructor. Structure of American industry and underlying determinants. Analysis of structure and conduct on industrial performance in light of theory and empirical evidence. Rational antitrust policy and analysis of impact on structure and performance.Class Concept
By grad school, students know the drill cold: read assignments, hear lectures, do homework, and spit it all back on the exam. Problem is, just then the game changes from grades to papers; few will care about your grades, compared to your research papers, written and published. A research paper is not a term paper, and can't be dashed off the weekend before it is due. A research paper does not offer a broad overview; it says something specific and new, even if minor, that fits in a context of other research papers.Assignments:My class is designed for this transition. Instead of covering many topics briefly, we cover fewer deeper. The research paper is half your grade, and can be all if you want. You must choose a model paper early in the semeseter, write a referee report on it, and present it in class. Then meeting with me frequently one on one, we look for and then create some variation on that model paper.
Week | Shy | Lecture Topic | Assignment | |
Jan 22 | 2,3 | Overview and Lockin | Look for Model Paper | |
Jan 29 | 4,5,6 | Homogeneous Products & Free Entry | ||
Feb 5 | 7 | Differentiated Products | Homework #1 | |
Feb 12 | Snow | |||
Feb 19 | 12 | Quality and Regulation | ||
Feb 26 | 10 | Networks and Standards | ||
Mar 5 | Paper Presentations | |||
Mar 12 | Spring Break | |||
Mar 19 | Midterm Exam | |||
Mar 26 | 11,16 | Ads and Search | ||
Apr 2 | 9 | Research and Development | ||
Apr 9 | Incentives | |||
Apr 16 | Organization Information Systems | |||
Apr 23 | Slack and Review | |||
Apr 30 | No Class | |||
May 9 | Paper Presentations |
Sources
On the web page, this links to a page of sources, most of which have links.Suggested Texts:
Oz Shy, Industrial Organization, Theory and Applications, MIT Press, ISBN 0-262-69179-5, 1996. (errata)
Jean Tirole, The Theory of Industrial Organization, MIT Press, ISBN 0-262-20071-6, 1994.
Dennis Carlton and Jeffrey Perloff, Modern Industrial Organization, Forth Edition, Addison-Wesley, ISBN: 0-321-18023-2, 2005.