Module Identifier | EC31410 | ||
Module Title | ECONOMICS AND ORGANISATIONS | ||
Academic Year | 2001/2002 | ||
Co-ordinator | Professor John Cable | ||
Semester | Semester 1 | ||
Course delivery | Lecture | 10 Hours | |
Seminars / Tutorials | 4 Hours | ||
Assessment | Exam | 1.5 Hours | 100% |
Reading
Besanko, et al, Ch 1
Douma and Schreuder, Chs 1, 3 and 4
Milgrom and Roberts, Ch 2.
2. Firm Boundaries: Traditional Views
Single production firms: horizontal boundaries ( economies of scale, market power);
Multi-product firms: economies of scope; diversification and vertical integration (technology, risk-pooling)
Reading
Besanko, et al, Chs 2 and 3
3. Transaction Cost Economics
Comparative institutions. Technology vs organisation. Economising. Details. Prediction. Vertical market structures and diversification again.
Reading
Besanko, et al, Chs 4, 5 and 6
Douma and Schreuder, Ch 8
O E Williamson, Transaction Cost Economics: The Governance of Contractual Relationships, in P J Buckley and J Michie, Firms, Organisations and Contracts, OUP 1996, Ch 6
Klein, B, Vertical Integration as Organisational Ownership: The Fisher Body-General Motors Relationship Revisited, in O E Williamson and S Winter (eds) The Nature of the Firm: Origins, Evolution and Development, OUP 1991
Teece, Towards an Explanation of the Multi-product firm. Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organisation
4. Agency
Principals and agents. Ownership and control. Incentive contracts.
Reading
Besanko, et al, Ch 15
Douma and Schreuder, Ch 7
G Stewart, Economics of the Firm, Ch 2 in J R Cable (ed) Current Issues in Industrial Economics, Macmillan, 1993
J McMillan, Games, Strategies and Managers, Chs 8-10
5. Auction Markets and Bidding for Contracts
English, Dutch and sealed bid (first and second price) auctions. Bidding strategies, revenue equivalence. The winner's curse. Empirical evidence.
Reading
J McMillan, Games, Strategies and Managers, Chs 11, 12
D E Campbell, Incentives: Motivation and the Economics of Information, Ch 3, section 2
R H Thaler, The Winner's Curse, Ch 5
6. Behavioural Theory
Organisational goals. Organisational search. Organisational choice. Evidence and applications
Reading
Douma and Schreuder, Ch 6
R M Cyert and J G March, A Behavioural Theory of the Firm, Second edition, 1992 (First edition 1963)