ECON 433  Economics of Organizations
Fall 2007

Office Hours:  Tuesday and Thursday 10:00-11:30 and by appointment.
        (but I am around most of the time so feel free to drop by my office!)

Contact Information:
                        Office Location:  425 WCOB
                        Phone: 575-6226
                        email: cdeck@walton.uark.edu

Download a copy of the course syllabus

Class Schedule (tentative and subject to change)

Date Topic

Assigned Chapter

 Other Materials of Interest (required as indicated)
8/21 Introduction{E1} 1 & 2  
8/23 Markets   Markets for Information:  http://www.tradesports.com/
Hollywood Stock Exchange:  http://www.hsx.com/
Terror Threat Exchange? http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,59818,00.html
Predicting Printer Sales at HP:  http://ideas.repec.org/p/clt/sswopa/1131.html
8/28 Demand 3  
8/30 Individual Behavior 4  
9/4 Expected Utility and Risk 15 What are the odds of dying by ...  http://www.nsc.org/lrs/statinfo/odds.htm
9/6 Estimating Demand 5 & 6 OLS Example
9/11 Production and Costs 7  
9/13 Production and Costs  {PS1, Data, AK} 9  
9/18 Summary of Supply and Demand 10  
9/20 Property Rights and Externalities {E2}   Saving the Tiger http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/08/15/opinion/edmitra.php
Farming Fish  http://www.nhpr.org/node/9679

RECLAIM in LA: http://www.aqmd.gov/reclaim/reclaim.html
9/25 Monopoly 11
Antitrust Legislation:  http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/foia/divisionmanual/ch2.htm#a1
Here is a link to the Arkansas Public Service Commission which regulates natural monopolies.
9/27 Pricing 12  
10/2 Pricing 12 A discussion of tying on Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tying_%28commerce%29
10/4 Oligopoly {PS2, AK} 13
Extra Problems on Oligopolies
10/9 Exam 1    
10/11 Oligopoly 13 FTC guidelines on horizontal mergers
10/16 De Beers {CS1}   Required:  This case can be downloaded from Harvard Business School
Spar and Burns "Forever: De Beers and U.S. Antitrust Law." 2001 
http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/relay.jhtml?name=itemdetail&id=700082
It is $6.50 to purchase an electronic copy.  I believe you can purchase the right to make 1 photocopy for $6.00.

Optional Additional Reading:
Bergenstock, Deily, and Taylor, "A Cartel's Response to Cheating:  An Empirical Investigation of De Beers Diamond Empire." Southern Economic Journal 73(1), July 2006, pp. 173-89.  

10/18 Normal Form Games {E3 - Slides}   The following websites discusses game theory in pop culture and recent news: http://www.gametheory.net/.

For the interested party:  McCain 's Game Theory a Non-Technical Introduction to the Analysis of Strategy provides a nice introduction to games while Gibbon's Game Theory for Applied Economists is a more technical treatment that is still accessible.  
10/23  Nash Equilibrium 14
10/25 Best Responses 14
10/30 Repeated Play Games 14
11/1 Out Sourcing/Vertical Integration {PS3, AK}  

 
11/6 Exam 2    
11/8 Principle Agent Problems
& Asymmetric Information		 17 & 18  
11/13 Principle Agent Problems
& Asymmetric Information		 17 & 18  
11/15 Procurement Auctions {E4, PS4, AK}    
11/20 Group Project Day - no class   Working in groups of 2 or 3, you have the opportunity to earn bonus points.  For these points you must use game theoretic techniques to analyze  a current business decision or event in the news and write a report detailing your analysis and explanation/prediction of the outcome.  The technical accuracy of your analysis as well as the grammatical correctness and professional presentation of your exposition will determine how many bonus points you receive.    
11/22 Thanksgiving - no class    
11/27 Procurement Auctions {PS5} 16 For the interested party:  Klemperer's Auctions:  Theory and Practice provides a nice survey of theoretical work on auctions.

Peter Cramton's website which had many papers on auctions:  http://www.cramton.umd.edu/auction-papers.htm
One that might be of particular interest is "Ascending Auctions"

Treasury Auctions: http://www.ny.frb.org/aboutthefed/fedpoint/fed41.html

 
11/29 Olympian Competition  {CS2}   Required:  McMillan "Olympian Competition: Bidding for Olympic Television Rights." 2003.
 This case can be downloaded from Harvard Business School at : http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=IB50&referral=2342
12/4 Government 19 & 20 Required:  Rethinking the Social Responsibility of Business - ReasonOnline
http://www.reason.com/0510/fe.mf.rethinking.shtml
12/7 Final Exam   The University has set the exam time for this course at 7:30am-9:30 am 

Helpful Links: 
http://wwnorton.com/web/mec6/ (the book’s website)
http://www.netmba.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics

Announcements:

Discussion of this year Nobel Prize winners:  http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/2007/info.pdf

Exam 1:  Blank Exam, Answer Key
Exam 2:  Answer Key

Extra Credit Opportunity - Learn More

Only approved electronic devices can be used during exams.  The use of graphing, programmable, or differentiating calculators, cell phones, lap tops, or hand-helds is PROHIBITED!    
Grades are available through Blackboard. 

Problem Sets should be submitted via Digital DropBox in BlackBoard (learn about this feature of BlackBoard).

Old Exams (please note that the course used a different text book prior to the fall of 2006 and thus the content of the class and exams has changed some over time. Exam 2 and Answer Key Spring 2006, Exam 3 and Answer Key Spring 2006, Exam 1 Fall 2006 Answer Key, Exam 2 Fall 2006 Answer Key, Exam 3 Fall 2006 Answer Key, Final Fall 06 V1, Final Fall 06 V2.

 

This website may not have current information and is not binding.  It is the student's responsibility to keep up with the class schedule, current assignments and announcements as they are made in class.