Results for MGTECON

This course covers microeconomic concepts relevant to managerial decision making. Topics include: demand and supply analysis; consumer demand theory; production theory; price discrimination; perfect competition; partial equilibrium welfare analysis; externalities and public goods; risk aversion and risk sharing; hidden information and signaling; moral hazard and incentives; game theory; oligopoly; and transaction cost economics.

MGTECON 203 is the accelerated option in microeconomics for 1st year MBA students. It will cover the usual array of topics, with an emphasis on topics more useful for students of management (although the order in which the topics are covered will be different from that in 200). No previous background in economics is required or expected, but in comparison with MGTECON 200, less time will be spent in class on basic problems. Therefore, students choosing this option should be completely comfortable with calculus and linear algebra. A good diagnostic is to read Sections 3.5 and 3.6 (pp. 57-67) in Kreps, Microeconomics for Managers. If you find this easy, 203 is a good choice. If not, 200 is the right course for you. Students with extensive background in microeconomics should take one of the Advanced Applications options; in particular, MGTECON 203 is NOT a good fit for students who have an undergraduate major in economics.

This course is an introduction to Microeconomics, focusing on microeconomic concepts relevant to managerial decision making. Topics include demand and supply, cost structure, price discrimination, perfect competition, externalities, and the basics of game theory. No prior Economics background is required but students who have not had courses in this area (or not had one in a very long time) may want to brush up on math prior to the start of classes.

This is the Advanced Applications option in the menu of courses that satisfy the Management Perspectives requirement in Optimization and Simulation Modeling (OSM). The course is tailored to students who already have command of basic optimization and simulation techniques, or have an advanced mathematical background that will allow them to catch up quickly. The focus of the course is on applying these techniques to a particular business domain: pricing mechanisms and market design. The pricing component of the course will handle both traditional topics, such as price differentiation, and more modern ones, such as dynamic pricing. In the market design component of the course, we will apply optimization and simulation techniques to such topics as auctions (e.g., designing auctions for selling online advertising slots) and matching (e.g., designing mechanisms for matching students to schools). No background in economics or in the pricing and market design topics mentioned above is required or expected.

This course gives students the background they need to understand the broad movements in the global economy. Key topics include long-run economic growth, technological change, wage inequality, international trade, interest rates, inflation, exchange rates, and monetary policy. By the end of the course, students should be able to read and understand the discussions of economic issues in The Economist, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, or the Congressional Budget Office.

This is an advanced applications economics course that applies recent innovations and high-powered tools to organization and general management. MBA1 students must have a strong background in microeconomics to take the course and should consult with their advisors. The course is appropriate for MBA2 students who have taken either Mgtecon 200 or Mgtecon 203. The course objective is to equip managers with an extensive set of analytical and applicable tools for handling the following topics: organization for coordination, designing incentives for moral hazard, monitoring and private information, applications to scope, scale, global management and mergers, principles for allocating decision power, managing supplier relations, downstream controls, franchising and alliances, bargaining, high order reasoning, repeated interactions and reputation, holdups and strategizing with unawareness. These topics will be covered in a combination of lectures and cases.

This course provides the legal, instititional, and economic background necessary to understand the financing and production of health services in the US. Potential topics include: health reform, health insurance (Medicare and Medicaid, employer-sponsored insurance, the uninsured), medical malpractice and quality regulation, pharmaceuticals, the corporate practice of medicine, regulation of fraud and abuse, and international comparisons.

For graduate students, and with permission of instructors, advanced undergraduates. This course provides the conceptual basis for understanding how to assess the effectiveness, costs, and cost effectiveness of health-care interventions. Students will gain an understanding of how to assess whether health-care interventions work, and if they work, whether they are worth what they cost. The course will cover principal evaluative techniques for health care, including, cost-effectiveness analysis, cost-benefit analysis, utility assessment, and decision analysis. Emphasis is on the practical application of these techniques. Group project presented at end of quarter. Guest lectures by experts from the medical school, entrepreneurs, pharmaceutical industry, and health care plans. The course content is relevant to researchers in health services and health policy, health-care managers, entrepreneurs, health-care consultants, and physicians.

The objective of this course is to give students an understanding of what international trade policy means for business leaders. To do this, students will have to understand the economic forces that determine the patterns and consequences of international trade. We will analyze trade policy tools used by governments (e.g., tariffs, subsidies and quotas), and examine the role of industry and politics at the domestic and global level in applying these tools. This course will combine lecture, case studies and group interaction.

This class applies the macroeconomic concepts that you've learned another course (e.g. in MgtEcon 300) to real-time current events.nnJust as you only really learn to speak a foreign language through immersion, the best way to understand macroeconomics is to use it intensively! In this class, there will be a new topic each week, chosen only days in advance to ensure timeliness. Examples may include "Janet Yellen's Monetary Policies" or "Economic Growth in Latin America" or "Thomas Piketty's New Book on Wealth Inequality." Students will divide into small groups, undertake research on a narrow question of their own choosing related to the general topic, and collectively write a 300-word blog entry to be posted on the (private) class blog at least 24 hours before class meets. Over the next day, students will read each others' entries. Finally, during class time, each group will lead a discussion of their blog post for 15-20 minutes.nnFor more information about this course, please see http://www.stanford.edu/~chadj/MacroToday.html after January 15, 2015.

This course discusses the financial crisis of 2008-9, developments since that time, and the future of finance. We consider how regulation, technology, and the changing world economy will create challenges and opportunities. We have guest speakers for about half of the classes. The list changes from year to year, but 2013's speakers included Tanya Beder, Sue Decker, Jacob Goldfield, Tom Kempner, Ana Marshall, Vincent Reinhart, Larry Summers, and Kevin Warsh.

Economic issues permeate all that happens in government. This topics-based course will exam a variety of historic and current issues on the political agenda where economics is central to decision making. It is taught by faculty who served at the White House in either the Clinton or George W. Bush Administration.

This class will analyze the economics of digital platform markets. The class format will consist of lectures, guest speakers, and student presentations. Concepts will be presented in the context of leading examples of internet and technology platforms such as online advertising, computing technology platforms (e.g. mobile), marketplaces, social networks, cloud computing, and financial technology platforms. The course will begin with economic definitions of platform markets, and it will review the most important insights from recent research in economic theory and strategy. It will then consider the role of scale economies and network effects in determining the dynamics of platform competition and long-run industry structure. Next, the class will consider key strategic decisions for firms, including entry strategies, vertical integration and exclusive deals.

Most statistical questions involving data ultimately are about causal effects. What is the effect of changing prices on demand? What is the effect of an advertising campaign on demand. In this course we discuss statistical methods for analyzing causal effects. We look at the analysis and design of randomized experiments. We also look at various methods that have been used to establish causal effects in observational studies. Students will develop the skills to assess causal claims and learn to ask the right questions and evaluate statistical analyses. You will carry out research projects and work with statistical software.

This economic policy compressed course will briefly examine a variety of government policies and how each influences technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship. We will examine a range of policy topics from the perspectives of both policymakers and the firms affected by these policies. Possible topics (subject to change) include: high-skilled immigration, the taxation of carried interest, net neutrality, carbon pricing, data privacy, global democracy / censorship, new drug/medical device approval, online education, and encryption. The course is aimed primarily at helping those interested in technology, entrepreneurial, or finance roles understand how policymakers think about and make decisions that affect these sectors. The course is taught by a former senior White House economic advisor to President George W. Bush.

This course provides an introduction to the foundations of modern microeconomic theory. Topics include choice theory, with and without uncertainty, consumer and producer theory, dynamic choice and dynamic programming, social choice and efficiency, and fundamentals of general equilibrium.nnStudents interested in this course should consult the instructor by email: kreps@stanford.edu

This course studies the roles of information, incentives and strategic behavior in markets. The rudiments of game theory are developed and applied to selected topics regarding auctions, bargaining, and firms' competitive strategies; information economics; and contracting and market design.

This course covers auction theory, matching, and related parts of the literature on bargaining and pricing. Key papers in the early part of the course are Myerson and Satterthwaite on bargaining, Myerson on optimal auctions, and Milgrom and Weber's classic work. We then turn to markets in which complicated preferences and constraints, limitations on the use of cash, or variations in contract details among bidders play an important role. Emphasis is on matching markets such as the National Resident Matching Program and asset auctions such as the spectrum auctions.

This is the first course in the sequence in graduate econometrics. The course covers some of the probabilistic and statistical underpinnings of econometrics, and explores the large-sample properties of maximum likelihood estimators. You are assumed to have introductory probability and statistics and matrix theory, and to haveexposure to basic real analysis. Topics covered in the course include random variables, distribution functions, functions of random variables,expectations, conditional probabilities and Bayes' law, convergence and limit laws, hypothesis testing, confidence intervals, maximum likelihood estimation, and decision theory.

This course presents a comprehensive treatment of econometric methods used in economics, finance, marketing, and other management disciplines. Among the topics covered are: the classical linear regression analysis, linear simultaneous equations systems, panel data models, generalized method of moments, selection models, and limited dependent variable models. This course uses Matlab or similar computational software, but previous experience with such software is not a prerequisite. This course assumes working knowledge of undergraduate econometrics, basic linear algebra, basic probability theory, and statistics that are covered in MGTECON 603. Those who did not take MGTECON 603 or similar should see the instructor.

This course completes the first-year sequence in econometrics. It develops nonlinear models in detail, as well as methods used to estimate nonlinear models, including nonparametric, semiparametric and moment-based estimators such as GMM. The instructor will discuss both the statistical properties of these estimators and how they are used in practice. Computational issues are explored in detail. Depending on student and instructor interest, we will consider advanced topics and applications, including: simulation methods and Bayesian estimators.

Students and faculty review and present recent research papers on basic theories and economic applications of decision theory, game theory and mechanism design. Applications include market design and analyses of incentives and strategic behavior in markets, and selected topics such as auctions, bargaining, contracting, signaling, and computation.

This course covers various topics in macroeconomics and is designed to expose students to macroeconomic methods, classic papers in the field, and the latest research at the frontier. The current focus is on economic growth. Using theoretical and empirical tools, we consider questions like: How do we understand long-run growth in per capita income? Why are some countries so much richer than others? Other topics include misallocation as a source of TFP differences, the direction of technical change, growth and the environment, the rise in health spending, patenting, and international trade.nnThis course satisfies the GSB PhD macro requirement.

The goal of this course is to introduce students to current research topics and open issues related to the role of information in markets and other economic mechanisms. Topics may include: information aggregation in prediction markets and other mechanisms, microstructure of financial markets, forecast testing, scoring mechanisms, information in auctions, information in e-commerce and novel marketplaces.nn

This is an advanced game theory course and requires a basic background in game theory or an advanced applied game theory course. The course covers foundational topics such as type spaces, modeling reasoning and rationality, game forms, solution refinements and more. A collection of additional topics will be covered independently via problem solving assignments in workshop style meetings with student presentations.

This course is intended to be an introduction to dynamic political economy theory. We will cover research at the frontier of this field and some useful tools. Tools will be primarily dynamic game theory - including Markov models and models of reputation. Topics covered will include dynamic legislative bargaining, dynamic coalition formation, endogenous institutions, endogenous policy formation, and private politics.

This course meets weekly on Tuesdays at Noon. The primary purpose of the course is to read and discuss current working papers in Industrial Organization and related fields (e.g., Econometrics, Marketing, and Labor). Students are required to present papers a couple of times per quarter and both students and faculty may also present their own working papers.

Each week, a different economics faculty member will discuss his or her important and /or current research. The course is an important introduction to PhD level research topics and techniques. Attendance is mandatory.

This is an advanced course on quantitative methods for empirical research. Students are expected to have taken a course in linear models before. In this course I will discuss modern econometric methods for nonlinear models, including maximum likelihood and generalized method of moments. The emphasis will be on how these methods are used in sophisticated empirical work in social sciences. Special topics include discrete choice models and methods for estimating treatment effects.

This seminar will examine applications of labor economics to business issues and firms' practices. Material will include both theoretical and empirical work, and the syllabus will range from classics in Personnel Economics to current (unpublished) research. Some of the topics to be covered include, but are not limited to, compensation practices, assignment of decision rights, organizational structure, attracting, retaining, and displacing employees, and workplace practices (such as team-based organization, profit sharing, etc.)

This course is offered for students requiring specialized training in an area not covered by existing courses. To register, a student must obtain permission from the faculty member who is willing to supervise the reading.

This course is elected as soon as a student is ready to begin research for the dissertation, usually shortly after admission to candidacy. To register, a student must obtain permission from the faculty member who is willing to supervise the research.

This is a course on methods for causal inference in statistics, with a particular focus on the use of randomized experiments and observational studies for making decisions under uncertainty. We will discuss some of the statistical methods, implementing them in R. No prior knowledge of R is required. We will discuss a number of detailed applications.nn

This class will explore the economics of the internet search business. The class will consist of lectures, guest speakers, and short student presentations. The course will begin with an overview of internet search, including the technology and engineering as well as the role of search for consumers, in society and the internet industry. We will then study search as a platform market, considering the interaction between the different sides of the market (users, advertisers, and publishers) as well as competition across platforms on different sides of the market. The advertising marketplace will receive special focus, including the design of the auction. We will also study the role of search in the internet ecosystem, examining recent trends towards vertical integration and its impact on the development of independent internet products and services. Finally we will address search as a data-driven business. Throughout, the course will draw parallels to other internet platform businesses, using search as an in-depth case study through which broader themes can be understood.

The course will review the results from a large management practices project involving Harvard, the London School of Economics, McKinsey & Company and Stanford. McKinsey & Company have developed a basic management practice evaluation tool - detailing the 18 key practices in firms - which has been used to evaluate almost 10,000 organizations in manufacturing, retail, healthcare and education across the US, Europe, Asia, Australasia and South America. These results provide a global insight into the basic management practices around monitoring, targets and talent management that firms adopt around the world, their link to performance, and the reasons for differences in these across countries. This will be supplemented with the results from more recent research with Accenture and the World Bank in India carrying out change-management interventions. nnnFull syllabus and lectures from 2011 available here:nnhttp://www.stanford.edu/~nbloom/Course_591.zipnnn

This course will be a first quarter PhD course in microeconomic theory, aimed at PhD students who do not plan to become professional economists. Relative to a course geared to economics PhDs the class will differ in two important ways. First, there will be almost no emphasis on proofs. Second, the topics covered will be broader than the standard set covered in say Econ 202.