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Politicians, regulators, and voters place limits on — and present opportunities for — nearly every business. Firms like Uber, Airbnb, and Google do not only remain cognizant of existing laws, they also look for opportunities to change the law in ways that help their business. In this class, we will learn how businesses can influence political decision-making and develop frameworks for political strategy. We will examine firms' interactions with competitive firms, market incumbents, customers, and institutions, including interest groups, legislatures, regulatory agencies, courts, international organizations, and the public. Case studies include intellectual property, health care reform, carried interest in private equity, ride-sharing, and peer-to-peer lending. Students will complete the course with a better appreciation of how politics works, of the opportunities and perils associated with alternative political goals, and of tactics likely to achieve those goals. Special emphasis is given to beyond market strategy for start-ups and how to integrate market and beyond-market strategies.

This course shares significant material with POLECON 230 and the goal of developing integrated strategies for optimal firm performance that combine elements within and beyond markets. POLECON 231 diverges from the base course to delve deeper into issues that are particularly salient for entrepreneurs in emerging and frontier markets. Using a combination of cases from developed and developing countries, we will expand the list of topics considered to include managing political risk and protecting the firm in the face of uncertain and discretionary regulatory environments. The objective is to provide a solid grounding in the techniques explored in 230, while refining skill sets and whetting appetites for investment in higher risk environments.

This course uses novels and plays as a basis for examining the moral and spiritual aspects of business leadership and of the environment in which business is done. On the one hand literature is used as the basis for examining the character of business people, while on the other hand literature provides illumination of the cultural contexts of values and beliefs within which commercial activities take place in a global economy. The course is organized around the interplay of religious traditions and national identities. Classes are taught in a Socratic, discussion-based style, creating as much of a seminar atmosphere as possible. A two-text method is used, encouraging students to examine their own personal stories with as much care as the stories presented in the literature. This course will be graded on the basis of class participation, weekly reflection papers (1 page), and a final paper. There will be no exam.

This course extends the foundations developed in P680 by applying techniques of microeconomic analysis and game theory to the study of political behavior and institutions. The techniques include information economics, games of incomplete information, sequential bargaining theory, repeated games, and rational expectations. The applications considered include agenda formation in legislatures, government formation in parliamentary systems, the implications of legislative structure, elections and information aggregation, lobbying, electoral competition and interest groups, the control of bureaucracies, interest group competition, and collective choice rules. Also listed as Political Science 351B.

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.