Instructor: Robin D. Hanson, Asst. Professor, Economics (rhanson@gmu.edu, http://robinhanson.com)
Office Hours: Officially Monday 10:30-12. But I'm usually in at Carow Hall 10A. Call ahead (703-993-2326) if you want to be sure.

Catalog Entry:

Econ 844 Industrial Organization and Public Policy I (3:3:0). Prerequisite: ECON 611 or permission of instructor. Structure of American industry and underlying determinants. Analysis of structure and conduct on industrial performance in light of theory and empirical evidence. Rational antitrust policy and analysis of impact on structure and performance.

Oz Shy, Industrial Organization, Theory and Applications, MIT Press, ISBN 0-262-69179-5, 1996. (errata)

F.M. Scherer, Industry, Structure, Strategy, and Public Policy, Harper Collins, ISBN 0-673-99289-6, 1996.

Carl Shapiro, Hal R. Varian, Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy, Harvard Business School Press, ISBN: 087584863X, 1998.

Jean Tirole, The Theory of Industrial Organization, MIT Press, ISBN 0-262-20071-6, 1994.

Dennis Carlton and Jeffrey Perloff, Modern Industrial Organization, Third Edition, Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-321-01145-7, 2000.

Jeffrey Church and Roger Ware, Industrial Organization, Irwin McGraw Hill, 2000, ISBN 0-256-20571-X

• Class Participation Please contribute to class discussions.
• Puzzle Presentations Each week someone will make a short presentation of a puzzling industrial organization phenomena. A signup sheet will be circulated the first day of class.
• Puzzle Anayses Each week you will turn in your analysis of the puzzle presented during the previous week. Afterward, we will discuss the puzzles in class.
• Homework Standard textbook type problems will be assigned weekly, typically one problem per week.
• Exams Two midterms and a final exam will be given in class, with questions similar to the homework, puzzle analyses, and class discussions. Tests are closed book, but you may bring one 8.5"x11" paper of notes. The final will contain one question asking you to summarize a particular chapter of the Scherer text.
• Research Paper I strongly encourage those who hope for an academic career to write a research paper. When you go on the job market no one will care what grade you got in this course, but people will care what papers you've written. If you go this route, the paper will count as half of your grade, with the other half on the other assignments. To go this route, you must give me a one page abstract by the first midterm. If you are interested in this route, I strongly encourage you to talk to me before settling on a topic.
• Grade Weights: Class Participate 5%, Present Puzzle 5%, Homework 10%, Puzzle Answers 10%, Each Midterm 20%, Final 30%.

Sam Peltzman, Review of The Handbook of Industrial Organization, The Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 99, No. 1. (Feb., 1991), pp. 201-217.

Hal Varian, How to Build an Economic Model in your Spare Time

Tyler Cowen, Law as a public good, Economics and Philosophy, 8:249-267, 1992. See also Law as a Private Good, and Market Provision of Law, Networks, and the Paradox of Cooperation.

Robin Hanson, Location Discrimination in Circular City, Torus Town, and Beyond

Misc. New Economy Articles