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Lectures Master

Economics of Innovation


Structure: Lecture + Tutorial
Rhythm: Summer semester
Credits: 6 CP
Course description: 02-VWL:MSc-V1-3
Language: English
Required work: Final exam (80 %) + Assignments (10 %) + Participation (5%) + Group paper and presentation (5 %)
Lecturers: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Georg Götz
Possible Major: Economics, Management

 

 You can find the most recent information to this course here. The recordings of the lecture from the summer term 2020 can be found on the chair's Youtube channel "Economics2Go" in the playlist Economics of Innovation. A detailed overview of the relevant Youtube Links can be found here.

 

Course description:

This course gives an overview over the economic study of innovation and the production of new goods and services. Students will learn about the importance of the research and development activities of firms and how they are influenced by public policy in general and by the patent system in particular. The course introduces patent races, the economics of licensing, and the study of adoption and diffusion of new technology. A further topic concerns R&D cooperation with a focus on the working of Research Joint Ventures. Throughout the course we will discuss the Schumpeterian themes of the relation between market structure, firm size and innovation. The course will also evaluate current technology policy as implemented in various countries. A seminar-like part will conclude the course with various case studies of firms’ research and development activities and innovations with a special focus on the pharmaceutical sector. We will have industry experts discussing their experience. 

  

Literature:

Baumol, W. The Free Market Innovation Machine – Analyzing the Growth Miracle of Capitalism, 2002, Princeton University Press.
Pepall, Richard, and Norman (PRN): Industrial Organization: Contemporary theory and practice, South Western, 3rd edition. 2005, chapters 22-24.
Tirole, J.: The Theory of Industrial Organization, MIT Press 1988, ch.10.
Stoneman, P. (ed.): Handbook of the Economics of Innovation and Technological Change, ch. 1, 4, 5, 7, 11, 12.
Brownwyn Hall, Nathan Rosenberg (eds.) Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, Vol 1 and 2, Elsevier, 2010.

 

Economics of Regulation


  

Structure: Lecture + Tutorial
Rhythm: Summer semester
Credits: 6 CP
Course description: 02-VWL:MSc-V1-1
Language: English
Required work: Final exam (85%) + Assignments (10%) + Participation (5%)
Lecturers: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Georg Götz
Possible Major: Economics, Economics of Global Risk

 

 You can find the most recent information to this course here. The recordings of the lecture from the summer term 2020 can be found on the chair's Youtube channel "Economics2Go" in the playlist Economics of Regulation.

 

Course description:

This course deals with network industries like electricity, gas and water supply as well as with the telecommunication sector and how to regulate them. A special focus is laid on the consequences of the asymmetric distribution of information among the agents active in these sectors. Here, one might think of product markets characterized by uncertainty about qualities and prices as well as labor markets, insurance markets, or financial markets. These markets are characterized by endogenous information that is generated by some market participants' behavior affecting other market participants' behavior. As a consequence, the market mechanism may be distorted or even fail.

 

Literature:

Paul Joskow: Regulation of Natural Monopolies August 2006, mimeo, MIT, a review article published in the Handbook of Law and Economics, 2007.
Recent developments in the theory of regulation, published in the Handbook of Industrial Organization (Vol. III), edited by M. Armstrong and R. Porter. This article provides an in-depth treatment of the theory of regulation under asymmetric information.
Regulation, Competition, and Liberalization. Journal of Economic Literature Vol. XLIV (June 2006), pp. 325–366. This article offers insights into the regulatory practice and discusses if and how effective competition can be created in sectors, which are at least partly natural monopolies. 
"K. Viscusi, J. Harrington, J. Vernon, Economics of regulation and antitrust. 4th. ed. MIT Press 2005."
Borrmann, J. und Finsinger, J., Markt und Regulierung. Verlag Vahlen 1999.
David Newbery, 1999, Privatization, Restructuring, and Regulation of Network Industries, MIT Press offers an excellent combination of theoretical insights and specific case studies, in particular with respect to the liberalization process.
Pepall, Richard, and Norman (PRN): Industrial Organization: Contemporary theory and practice, South Western, 3rd edition. 2005.
"Introduction to Economic Analysis" by R. Preston McAfee.

 

Industrial Organization


 

Structure: Lecture + Tutorial
Rhythm: Winter semester
Credits: 6 CP
Course description: 02-VWL:MSc-V1-2
Language: English
Required work: Final exam (85%) + Assignments (10%) + Participation (5%)
Lecturers: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Georg Götz
Possible Major: Economics, Management

 

You can find the most recent information to this course here. The recordings of the lecture from the past WS 20/21 can be found on the chair's Youtube channel "Economics2Go" in the playlist Industrial Organization.

 

Course description:

This course extends the basic concepts of Industrial Organization and presents advanced methods and topics. The focus is on business strategies such as price discrimination and product differentiation and on strategic interaction in oligopoly. Students will learn about the importance of the research and development activities of firms and how they are influenced by public policy in general and by the patent system in particular. The course models and evaluates business behavior from both a public policy and a managerial perspective.

 

Literature:

Pepall, Richard, and Norman: Industrial Organization: Contemporary theory and practice, South Western, 3rd edition. 2005 (or Industrial Organization: Contemporary theory and practice, Wiley, 4th edition. 2008).
Pepall/Richards/Norman: Contemporary Industrial Organization: A Quantitative Approach, resp. We recommend that you buy the more advanced "Quantitative Approach" text book.
D.W. Carlton and J.M. Perloff: Modern Industrial Organization, Pearson, 4th edition 2005.
Luis Cabral: Introduction to Industrial Organization, MIT Press, 2000.
Tirole, J., The Theory of Industrial Organization. MIT-Press, 1988.
Industrial Organization - Markets and Strategies by Paul Belleflamme and Martin Peitz, Cambridge University Press 2010.
Helmut Bester: Theorie der Industrieökonomik, third edition, Springer, Berlin 2004.