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Advanced Microeconomics - 7 ECTS


Date and time

Tuesday 17 September 2024 at 09:30 to Thursday 5 December 2024 at 15:30

Registration Deadline

Thursday 12 September 2024 at 23:55

Location

Porcelænshaven - room PH16A 2.80 (second floor), Porcelænshaven 16A, 2000 Frederiksberg Porcelænshaven - room PH16A 2.80 (second floor)
Porcelænshaven 16A
2000 Frederiksberg

Advanced Microeconomics - 7 ECTS


Course coordinator: Anette Boom, Department of Economics (MSC)

Faculty


Head of Department Alexander Christopher Sebald (ACS)
Department of Economics, CBS

Associate Professor Karol Szwagrzak (KS)
Department of Economics, CBS

Assistant Professor Tróndur Møller Sandoy (TMS)
University of the Faroe Islands, Faculty of History and Social Sciences

Associate Professor Anette Boom (AB)
Department of Economics, CBS


Prerequisite

The course is compulsory for the PhD students of Copenhagen Business School’s Department of Economics, but also open to other PhD students with knowledge of intermediate microeconomics, some econometrics, as well as mathematical tools like multivariate calculus, constrained maximization, and linear algebra, and basic probability and statistics.

Duration

The Course starts on September 17, 2024, in week 38 with an introduction and two sessions (September 25, and 26, and October 2, and 5) in week 39 and week 40. It then continues from week 46 until week 49 (see the details in the attached lecturing plan).

Aim of the Course and Learning Objectives

After the course, students shall be able to:

    • understand the role of economic theory in cutting-edge research across all fields of economics,
    • demonstrate knowledge of the concepts, models, methods and tools of advanced microeconomic theory as discussed during the course,
    • read and understand international research papers expanding the frontier of microeconomic research,
    • apply, adapt, and develop advanced microeconomic models to specific research questions,
    • and evaluate microeconomic models used by other scholars.

Course content

The aim of the course is to get the students acquainted with the most important models and methods used in advanced microeconomic theory in order to enable them to apply these models and methods later in their own research. This is done by introducing the students to either very influential and/or recent academic research.

The course covers the following topics:

  1. Decisions Theory (Revealed preferences, Uncertainty, Risk, and Time preferences)
  2. Game Theory,
  3. Mechanism Design and Contract Theory.

Teaching methods

Lectures and student workshops.

Assessment

Attendance is obligatory. To pass the course, students have to master three different tasks in a satisfactory manner with the possibility of retaking each of them once.

1.      The students have to either hand in the solutions to one problem-set or a research proposal (approximately 10 pages) on the basis of the microeconomic theory taught in the class. The hand-out date for the problem set is January 6, 2025 and hand-in date for either the research proposal or the solutions of the problem set is January 20, 2025.

2.      They have to present one academic research article mentioned in the list for potential presentations and comment on the presentation of another student in class.

3.      They have to write a referee report (approximately 4 pages) on an unpublished microeconomic theory paper of their own choice and hand it in until December 31, 2024.

Course literature (Indicative)

Selected Chapters from:

  • Bolton, Patrick and Mathias Dewatripont (2005), Contract Theory, MIT Press: Cambridge, MA.
  • Chambers, Christopher P. and Federico Echenique (2016), Revealed Preference Theory, Econometric Society Monograph, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK. (available online in the CBS library)
  • Gilboa, Itzhak (2009), Theory of Decision under Uncertainty, Econometric Society Monographs 45, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (available online in the CBS library)
  • Jackson, Matthew O., Mechanism Theory (December 26, 2014). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2542983 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2542983
  • Krishna, Vijay (2010), Auction Theory, Second Edition, Academic Press: Amsterdam et al.
  • Mas-Colell, Andreu, Michael D. Whinston and Jerry R. Green (1995), Microeconomic Theory, Oxford University Press: New York and Oxford.
  • Osborne, Martin and Ariel Rubinstein (1994), A Course in Game Theory, MIT Press: Cambridge, MA.
  • Strzalecki, Tomasz (2023), Stochastic Choice Theory, Harvard University monograph (available online)

Selected Journal Articles

Teaching hours

The class includes 44 confrontation hours.


Lecturing Plan

Date

Syllabus

Week 38 - day 1
17.9.2024
9:30-11:30 am &
1-3 pm
Introduction (KS)
The lecture will be based on: Chapter 1 in Mas-Colell et al. (1995), Chapter 2 in Chambers and Echenique, Chapters 8, 10, 14 and 17 in Gilboa (2009). The lecture then provides an overview of course and guidance on how to approach the readings in rest of the programme.
Week 39 - day 2
25.9.2024
9:30-11:30 am &
1-3 pm
Revealed Preferences, Risk and Uncertainty (KS)
Chapters 2 and 3 from Chambers and Echenique (2016).
Chapters 8, 10, 14 and 17 in Gilboa (2009)
Week 39 - day 3
26.9.2024
9:30-11:30 am &
1:30-3:30 pm
Risk and Uncertainty, Preferences for Flexibility (KS)
Gilboa and Schmeidler (1989), Machina and Schmeidler (1992), Tversky and Kahneman (1992), Klibanoff et al. (2005)
Kreps (1979) and Dekel et al. (2001)
Week 40 - day 4
2.10.2024
9:30-11:30 am &
1-3 pm
Time Preferences, Temptation and Self-control  (KS)
Bleichrodt et al. (2008), Kreps and Porteus (1978), Epstein (1983), Epstein and Zin (1991), Gul and Pesendorfer (2001)
Week 40 - day 5
4.10.2024
9:30-11:30 am &
1:30-3:30 pm
Stochastic Choice (KS)
Chapter 7 in Chambers and Echenique (2016), Gul and Pesendorfer (2006)
Week 46 - day 6
13.11.2024
9:30-11:30am &
1-3pm
Experiments on Belief Dependent Preferences, Guilt and Salience (ACS)
Bellemare, Sebald and Suetens (2018), Bellemare, Sebald and Suetens (2019), Nielsen, Sebald and Sørensen (2021)
Week 47 - day 7
18.11.2024
9:00-12:00 am & 2:30-4:30 pm
Game Theory (KS)
Osborne and Rubinstein (1994), Chapter 1,2,6 & 11 and 12.
The lecture gives you an overview over important game theoretic concepts which are used in the literature on which the rest of the course is based.
Week 48 - day 8
27.11.2024
9:30-11:30 am &
1-3 pm
Mechanism Design (KS)
Jackson (2014) and Chapter 23 in Mas-Colell et al. (1995)
Week 48 - day 9
28.11.2024
10:30-11:30am
Example of Empirical Research based on Microeconomic Theory (TSM)
The lecture illustrates the relationship between theoretical microeconomic models and empirical research concerning real-world economic problems. For this purpose, TSM will present chapter one of his recent PhD thesis, on the demand for higher education and beliefs on admission chances.
Week 48 - day 10
28.11.2024
1:30-3:30pm
Student Workshops: Moral Hazard, Adverse Selection and Signalling (AB)
Students are divided into three groups and each group presents one of the three topics. They can take inspiration from Bolton and Dewatripont (2005).
Week 49 - day 11
04.12.2024
9:30-11:30am&
1-3pm
Auction Theory (AB)
Myerson (1981), Chapter 1, and 2 in Krishna (2010)
Week 49 - day 12
05.12.2024
9:30-11:30am &
1:30-3:30pm
The Theory of the Firm (AB)
Grosman and Hart (1986), Chapter 11 in Bolton and Dewatripont (2005).How to Write a Referee Report? (AB)

Berk, Harvey and Hirshleifer (2017)

 

Note: In case we receive more registrations for the course than we have seats, seats will be filled based on the motivation uploaded upon registration. CBS PhD students will have priority.

 

Registration Deadline and Conditions

The registration deadline is 16 August 2024. If you wish to cancel your registration, it must be done by this date. By this deadline, we determine whether there are enough registrations to run the course or decide who should be offered a seat if we have received too many registrations.

If seats are still available, we will extend the registration deadline to fill the remaining spots. Once you receive our acceptance/welcome letter, your registration becomes binding, and no course fee refunds will be issued. The binding registration date is the deadline mentioned above.
 
 
Payment Methods
 
Ensure you choose the correct payment method when finalizing your registration:
 
CBS students:
Select the payment method CBS PhD students. The course fee will be deducted from your PhD course budget.
 
Students from Other Danish Universities: 
Select the payment method Danish Electronic Invoice (EAN). Provide your EAN number, attention, and any relevant purchase (project) order number.
If you do not pay via EAN number, select Invoice to pay via electronic bank payment (+71).
 
Students from Foreign Universities:
Select the payment method Payment Card. If you are unable to pay by credit card, choose Invoice International to pay via bank transfer.

Event Location

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Organizer Contact Information

CBS PhD School
Nina Iversen

Phone: +45 3815 2475
ni.research@cbs.dk

Organizer Contact Information

CBS PhD School
Nina Iversen

Phone: +45 3815 2475
ni.research@cbs.dk