Ec 105: Firms, Competition, and Industrial Organization


Meeting times and location: Fridays 1-4pm.
Syllabus: PDF
Announcements
  • For class next Friday (March 3, 2023): Please come prepared with a preliminary version of your final presentation (about 7-10 slides). I will have office hours with each of you in preparation for your final presentations on March 10, 2023.
  • Instructions for exam next Friday (February 24, 2023): Please pick up the exam at 1pm from Letty Diaz, who sits outside my office at 301D Baxter Hall. Return it by 4pm to Letty.
  • Here is a previous final exam for this class. Please solve it and turn it in during class on Friday, February 17, 2023.
  • For next Friday, February 10, 2023, please read this short paper on price discrimination here. Look around and document three instances of price discrimination. Hand this in next class.
  • Here is a previous midterm for this class. Please solve it and turn it in during class on Friday, February 3, 2023.
  • Problem Set 2 is due on Friday, January 27, 2023; please bring it to class that day.
  • For Friday, January 20, 2023: please give me a writeup describing ideas for your final presentation. A guideline can be found here.
  • Please come and talk to me as soon as possible regarding the topic for your final presentation.
  • Problem Set 1 is due on Friday, January 13, 2023; please bring it to class that day. Do problems 1,3,4,6-10.

    Lecture Notes:
  • Costs PDF

  • Perfect Competition and Monopoly PDF

  • Oligopolistic Competition PDF
    Mixed strategies in tennis matches? (Walker and Wooders paper) PDF
    Edgeworth cycles in gasoline: Perth, Australia (Wang paper) PDF
    Edgeworth cycles in gasoline: Toronto, Canada (Noel paper) PDF

  • Cartels and collusion I PDF
  • Cartels and collusion II PDF
    Collusive pricing in supermarkets? (Chevalier, Kashyap, Rossi paper) PDF
    Case study: the Joint Exective Committee (Porter paper) PDF

  • Incumbent advantage. Entry deterrence and accommodation PDF
    Entry deterrence in pharmaceuticals? (Ellison and Ellison paper) PDF

  • Product differentiaion PDF
    Excessive entry in radio markets? (Berry and Waldfogel paper) PDF

  • Price discrimination (Part 1) PDF
  • Price discrimination (Part 2: nonlinear pricing) PDF
    Nonlinear pricing in coffee (McManus paper) PDF

  • Information Costs Part 1: Search and price dispersion PDF
    Search in online book markets: sequential vs. non-sequential (de los Santos, Hortacsu, Wildenbeest paper) PDF
    Search in gasoline markets (Lewis and Marvel paper) PDF
  • Information Costs Part 2: Adverse selection and moral hazard PDF

  • Vertical control PDF
    Downstream moral hazard in perfume markets (Chevalier and Carlton paper) PDF

  • Games with asymmetric information: Auctions

  • Bounded rationality in markets PDF


  • Games with asymmetric information: Auctions


    Problem sets:
  • Problem set #1 PDF
  • Problem set #2 PDF
  • Problem set #3 PDF
  • Project progress report PDF
  • Progress report on paper (3 pgs). DUE: