MGT 431 – Information: Strategy and Economics

 

Course Page

 

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           Summary

This course serves as an introduction to the economics of information and its strategic ramifications. The main objectives are:

·       to use economic theory to understand strategic interactions in the presence of uncertainty and estimate the value of information;

·       to analyze competitive strategy in an information economy.

 

<Current Syllabus (Version: February 20, 2019)> 

 

Contact Details

 

Instructor

Prof. Thomas A. Weber

Operations, Economics and Strategy (OES)

EPFL-CDM-ODY 3.01

Phone: +41 21 693 01 41

Fax: +41 21 693 00 20

E-Mail: thomas.weber@epfl.ch

Office Hours: Wed 17h – 18h

 

Teaching Assistance

Michael Mark                                                                                                               

EPFL-CDM-ODY 4.16

Phone: +41 21 693 12 32

Office Hours: Tue 17h – 18h
E-Mail: michael.mark@epfl.ch

 

 

Administrative Assistance

Ms. Ilona Ball                                                   

EPFL-CDM-ODY 3.16

Phone: +41 21 693 00 39

E-Mail : ilona.ball@epfl.ch

 

 

Course Materials (requires authentication)

 
1: Competition and Market Power
2: Product Differentiation

3: Pricing Methods

4: Externalities and System Effects

5: Moral Hazard and Incentives
6: Markets and Intermediaries
7: Imperfect Competition: Search Markets
8: Auctions and Bargaining
9: Sharing Markets

 

                                               

Current Problem Sets & Solutions

·       Problem Set 1 (Due: March 13)    Solutions

·       Problem Set 2 (Due: April 10)    Solutions

·       Problem Set 3 (Due: April 17)    Solutions

 

Exams & Solutions

·       Midterm Exam (2019)    Solutions

·       Practice Midterm Exam (2018)    Solutions

·       Practice Midterm Exam (2017)    Solutions

·       Practice Midterm Exam (2016)    Solutions

         

Useful Links & Resources

 

A.    General Resources

·     EPFL Library × information about the library and useful starting point to find electronic resources available at EPFL

·     Nebis Catalogue × here you can check EPFL’s and other Swiss libraries’ holdings, and order books to the circulation desk

·     Inomics × index of Economics conferences (quite comprehensive, but still incomplete)

·     JSTOR × download top journal papers in Business, Economics, Statistics; most recent years not available

·     Social Science Citation Index × useful to forward-search references to key papers that you identify: after searching the paper, go to its full record, click on the number next to “Times Cited”, then on the following page click on “Total”; the citation index sometimes also contains direct links to databases with pdf-copies of the papers

·     Social Science Research Network × large repository of current working papers in the social sciences

 

B.    Supply-Chain Management Resources

·       BCG Strategy Institute

·       CyberEconomics

·       Economics of Networks

·       intrade

·       Investopedia

·       McKinsey Quarterly

·       Search Engine Watch