Learning Goals: EEP 142 Industrial Organization with Applications to Agriculture and Natural Resources

Knowledge:

- Attain solid understanding of industrial organization in a variety of markets and implications for welfare.

- Gain an understanding of theoretical literature and how those theoretical insights can be taken to markets, in the form of empirical analyses

- Learn to use Stata to test empirical predictions from theoretical models covered

Skills:

- Develop the ability to interpret and analyze a market structure and industrial organization phenomenon in terms of welfare effects

- Derive policy implications in agricultural and resource markets.

- Begin to acquire independent research skills on a given topic of interest that we cover in the class

- Know how to make use of secondary sources to develop an independent research project.

- Work in a group to develop a research project

-Use Stata to test theories and interpret results

- Learn how to present findings in a class presentation

NEW ANNOUNCEMENTS ARE HERE. PLEASE CHECK PERIODICALLY.

Quiz is due during lecture 3 of material

Problem sets are due on the day announced in the pdf of each pset.

The Midterm is due the latest by 4pm of the date on the front page. It will be emailed to you, follow instructions in the email you receive from me. No Exceptions!

The due date for topic and group member names is in the syllabus. Project due in writing by the last lecture and to be truened in in hard copy to me in person.

Projects: All years cases are here . For each semester there are some cases I would like to cover with you. Those Cases are to be presented during Class either by a group of you or by me if no group. The list is here and projects are first come first serve.

If you do not make a class presentation, then the requirement is to turn in a project in writing, as a report consisting of about 5 pages, including references, that is due in writing by the last lecture in the semester, as a hard copy, to be given to me in person.

Final Exam is due the latest by 4pm on the date in the Exam handout that will be emailed to you, follow instructions in the email you receive from me. No Exceptions!

In addition we study the role of public policy in the markets: (1) regulatory laws, such as agricultural price support programs and marketing orders and (2) antitrust or competition policy.

Some of the agricultural and natural resource applications we discuss are: the oil cartel OPEC; the diamonds cartel De Beers and the motives for its policy and reputation for not lowering prices; agricultural cooperatives; predation and acquisition of rivals in tobacco industry; vertical integration of food processors; franchising of fast-food chains; the role of hygiene grade cards in reducing asymmetric information and provision of quality.

Many of the lectures will be theoretical, but the material will be supplemented discussions of empirical and case studies.

Each student needs to be part of a group project. Link to Past Group Projects.

Please look at past students impressions on the course: Link

Office hours: Friday. 4-5 pm or by appointment in room 234 Giannini Hall.

If you wish to put homework in my mailbox it is in room 207 in Giannini Hall.

Textbook: Modern Industrial Organization, Dennis W. Carlton and Jeffrey Perloff, 3rd Edition, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 2000. A copy of this textbook is available in the Moffitt Library. Companion web-page

Optional Reading: Introduction to Industrial Organization, Luis M. B. Cabral, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2000.

Course Requirements: Problem sets, Quiz, and Empirical Projects 55% Midterm 15%; Final Exam 25% Participation and Project Presentations 5%

Office hours Sofia : Fridays 234 Giannini 4-5pm

Grader's office hours Andrew, 234 Giannini on Mondays from 10-11 a.m

If you need disability-related accommodations in this class, if you have emergency medical information you wish to share with me, or if you need special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please inform me immediately. Please see me privately after class or at my office. The Disabled Students' Program (DSP) is the campus office responsible for verifying that students have disability-related needs for academic accommodations and for planning appropriate accommodations, in cooperation with the students themselves and their instructors. Students who need academic accommodations should request them from DSP: 230 Cesar Chavez Student Center, 642-0518 (voice) and 642-6376 (TTY); Webpage http://www.dsp.berkeley.edu/ .

Course Materials

Contact Sofia Villas-Boas

Back to Homepage , College of Natural Resources Home Page