杏吧论坛

Prof Ricardo Alonso MAR.6.30

This course is compulsory on the BSc in Management. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course is available with permission to General Course students.

This course has a limited number of places (it is capped). Students who have this course as a compulsory course are guaranteed a place. Places for all other students are allocated on a first come first served basis.

Students should have completed (i) Economics A (EC100) or Economics B (EC102) or Microeconomics I (EC1A1/EC1A3) in combination with Macroeconomics I (EC1B1/EC1B3), (ii) Quantitative Methods (Mathematics) (MA107) or equivalent and Quantitative Methods (Statistics) (ST107) or equivalent, and (iii) Economics for Management (MG207) or Microeconomic Principles I (EC201) or Microeconomic Principles II (EC202) or Microeconomics II (EC2A1 and EC2A3).

The first half of the course studies how firms compete with each other. More specifically, we will study strategic situations (competition and rivalry, competitive advantage (sources and sustainability), entry and entry deterrence, product differentiation, the role of information in markets, etc.) and formulate decision models of these situations. While the modelling and predictions are based on game theory, we will contrast our findings to real life games according to the growing empirical evidence.

The second half of the course studies how firms organize and the challenges they face in doing so. More specifically, we study the way managers interact with the different constituencies inside the firm- workers, board members, and other managers- and how those interactions shape the actual design of organizations. It presents, again with a heavy emphasis on the evidence, how the need to motivate organizational members and to coordinate their actions shape the provision of incentives, the allocation of authority, the ownership structure, acquisition and diffusion of knowledge, and patterns of communication. 

Beyond the emphasis on the content of the course, the course also aims to be a course where students learn to think critically and analytically. Students will learn to identify trade-offs in how firms behave and the way they organize themselves, and critically evaluate the sources of those trade-offs by appealing to simple models of individual behaviors. Students will learn to read the primary literature, discuss papers in class, interpret the evidence etc. Students will