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Advanced Microeconomics - 7.5 ECTS
Course coordinator: Associate Professor Anette Boom
Faculty
Head of Department Alexander Christopher Sebald (ACS)
Department of Economics, CBS
Associate Professor Karol Szwagrzak (KS)
Department of Economics, CBS
Professor Lars Peter Østerdal (LPO)
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 teaching starts on September 15, 2026, in week 38 with an introduction and another session on September 18, two sessions (September 21, and 24), in week 39 and one session in week 41 (October 6). It then continues from week 46 until week 49 (see the details in the attached lecturing plan). The final session will be on January 29, 2027, where the students present their previously handed in research proposals and get feedback from their co-students and the teachers in the class.
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 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. Choice Theory (Revealed preference, Uncertainty, Risk, Time preferences, Stochastic choice),
2. Social Welfare,
3. Game Theory,
4. Mechanism Design and Contract Theory.
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 must hand in a research proposal (approximately 10 pages) based on the microeconomic theory, taught in class. The hand-in date for the research proposal is January 16, 2027. The students must present their research proposal and discuss it with the teachers and their co-students in a convincing way in the final session of the course on January 29, 2027.
2. They must present one academic research article, mentioned in the list for potential presentations, and comment on the research article presentation of another student in class.
3. They must write a referee report (approximately 4 pages) on an unpublished microeconomic theory paper of their own choice and hand it in until December 31, 2026.
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.
- Moulin, Hervé (1988), Axioms of Cooperative Decision Making, Econometric Society Monographs 15, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (available online in the CBS library)
- 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 15.9.2026 |
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 the course and guidance on how to approach the readings in the rest of the programme. |
|
Week 38 18.9.2026 |
Revealed Preferences, Risk and Uncertainty (KS) Chapters 2 and 3 from Chambers and Echenique (2016). Chapters 8, 10, 14 and 17 in Gilboa (2009), Gilboa and Schmeidler (1989), Machina and Schmeidler (1992), Tversky and Kahneman (1992), Klibanoff et al. (2005) |
|
Week 39 |
Preferences for Flexibility, Time Preferences, Temptation and Self-control (KS) Kreps (1979) and Dekel et al. (2001) Bleichrodt et al. (2008), Kreps and Porteus (1978), Epstein (1983), Epstein and Zin (1991), Gul and Pesendorfer (2001) |
|
Week 39 |
Stochastic Choice (KS) Chapter 7 in Chambers and Echenique (2016), Gul and Pesendorfer (2006) |
|
Week 41 |
Social Welfare: Measurement, Comparisons and Policy (LPO) Chapter 2 of Moulin (1988) Hougaard et al. (2013), Argyris et al. (2025), Hussain et al. (2025) |
Week 46 |
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 46 |
Experiments on Belief Dependent Preferences, Guilt and Salience (ACS) Bellemare, Sebald and Suetens (2018), Bellemare, Sebald and Suetens (2019), Nielsen, Sebald and Sørensen (2025) |
|
Week 48 |
Mechanism Design (KS) Jackson (2014) and Chapter 23 in Mas-Colell et al. (1995) |
|
Week 48 |
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 |
Auction Theory (AB) Myerson (1981), Chapter 1, and 2 in Krishna (2010) |
|
Week 49 |
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) |
|
Week 4 |
Presentation of the PhD Students’ Research Proposals, Discussion and Feedback (AB and KS) |
Course Diploma
The binding registration deadline is 4 September 2026. If you wish to cancel your registration, you must do so by this date. After the deadline, we will assess whether there are sufficient registrations to run the course and, if necessary, allocate seats if demand exceeds capacity.
If seats remain available after this deadline, the registration period may be extended to fill the remaining seats.
Please note that once you receive our acceptance or welcome letter, your registration becomes binding, and no refunds of the course fee will be issued.
Information about the Event
Date and time Tuesday 15 September 2026 at 09:30 to Friday 29 January 2027 at 15:00
Registration Deadline Friday 4 September 2026 at 23:55
Location
Porcelænshaven - room PH16A 2.80 (second floor)
Porcelænshaven 16A
Frederiksberg
DK-2000
Organizer
Nina Iversen, CBS PhD School
Phone +45 3815 2475
ni.research@cbs.dk
Event Location
About CBS PhD School
Copenhagen Business School (CBS) offers a range of PhD courses, covering the scientific disciplines of the school. The courses include research design, publication techniques, research methods such as qualitative or quantitative methods, and specialisation courses in eg. organisational analysis, marketing and political science.
Most courses are organised as intensive week-long courses, but other formats are applied as well. The courses are open to PhD students from other countries and institutions, but some prerequisites may apply. Please see the individual course descriptions.
The PhD courses are offered in English and are for PhD students only.
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Event Location
About CBS PhD School
Copenhagen Business School (CBS) offers a range of PhD courses, covering the scientific disciplines of the school. The courses include research design, publication techniques, research methods such as qualitative or quantitative methods, and specialisation courses in eg. organisational analysis, marketing and political science.
Most courses are organised as intensive week-long courses, but other formats are applied as well. The courses are open to PhD students from other countries and institutions, but some prerequisites may apply. Please see the individual course descriptions.
The PhD courses are offered in English and are for PhD students only.