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Course title |
Game Theory and Business Strategy: A Mini Course |
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Semester |
109-2 |
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Designated for |
COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GRADUATE INSTITUTE OF ECONOMICS |
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Instructor |
TSUNG-SHENG TSAI |
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Curriculum Number |
ECON5183 |
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Curriculum Identity Number |
323EU2320 |
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Class |
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Credits |
1.0 |
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Full/Half
Yr. |
Half |
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Required/
Elective |
Elective |
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Time |
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Remarks |
Restriction: juniors and beyond OR Restriction: MA students and beyond OR Restriction: Ph. D students
The upper limit of the number of students: 20. |
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Course introduction video |
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Table of Core Capabilities and Curriculum Planning |
Table of Core Capabilities and Curriculum Planning |
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Course Syllabus
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Please respect the intellectual property rights of others and do not copy any of the course information without permission
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Course Description |
課程概述Course Description
This mini course demonstrates how basic economic principles and game theory can be applied to analyze business strategy and understand competition dynamics. Basic economic principles refer to profit maximization, price discrimination, and economies of scale and scope. Game theory is a branch of mathematics/economics concerned with the analysis of strategies for dealing with situations where the outcome depends critically on the actions of all participants. Game theory can be highly abstract and mathematical, but this course will only focus on its applied side. In particular, we are interested in incorporating business fundamentals and economic principles into a stylized game theoretical framework to conduct simple market analysis. Three main topics will be covered:
1. Horizontal and vertical boundaries of the firm
2. Market structure and competition
3. Dynamic Pricing
We will implement case-based learning in this course: For each topic, several case studies will be presented and discussed to help you better understand how theoretical concepts can be applied to analyze real business scenarios. There is one caveat though: To some extent, we sacrifice some rigorousness to conciseness in this crash course. |
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Course Objective |
二、教學目標Course Objective
Upon successful completion of the course, you should be able to:
Identify business fundamentals and economic principles relevant to business decision making
Apply analytical tools in game theory to conduct market/strategic analysis
Develop strong business acumen
三、課程進度及教學內容簡述Course outline (Course Schedule of 15 hours)
Lectures 1-2 (2/1 Monday 10:00-12:00 & 14:00-16:00)
Introduction
Horizontal boundaries of the firm
Price discrimination
Case Study I: Tesla is damaged goods? Is Elon Musk out of his mind?
Lectures 3-4 (2/2 Tuesday 10:00-12:00 & 14:00-16:00)
Vertical boundaries of the firm
Case Study II: Netflix lost “Friends”
Case Study III: Amazon as a logistics company?
Lectures 5-6 (2/3 Wednesday 10:00-12:00 & 14:00-16:00)
Market structure and competition
Classical oligopoly models
Case Study IV: Can you predict tomorrow’s petrol price?
Case Study V: Viagra saves _______?
Case Study VI: Apple, Samsung, and Trump Tax
Lecture 7 (2/4 Thursday 13:00-16:00)
Dynamic Pricing
Case Study VII: Target: How can you tell if someone is pregnant?
Case Study VIII: Uber puts economists in the driver’s seat |
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Course Requirement |
Grading:
Take-home final exam, 100%.
Requirements for students after the class:
Complete lecture exercises and take-home exam. |
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Student Workload (expected study time outside of class per week) |
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Office Hours |
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Designated reading |
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References |
Required readings:
Dranove, D, Besanko, D, Shanley, M and Schaefer S, Economics of Strategy, (John Wiley & Sons, 7th ed. 2015)
Lecture notes and references therein
Extension readings:
Jean Tirole. The Theory of Industrial Organization, MIT Press, 1988
Avinash K. Dixit and Barry J. Nalebuff. The Art of Strategy: A Game Theorist's Guide to Success in Business and Life, W. W. Norton & Company, 2010
Joel Watson. Strategy: An Introduction to Game Theory, W. W. Norton & Company, 2013 |
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Grading |
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