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General course information (this page)

Formal course description

Course Outline

 

 

INFO 231 
CCN: 42599 
3 unit(s) 

 

Economics of Information 

Instructor(s)

 

Yale Braunstein
E-mail: yale<at>ischool.berkeley.edu
Office: 203B South Hall
Office hours: T-Th 3:30-4:30pm & by appt.

Time/Location

 

Tue-Thur 11:00am-12:30pm
107 South Hall 

(Last updated 11 April 2011)

Important notes:

  1. This schedule is tentative and is meant as an overall guide.  It will be updated throughout the semester to better reflect reality.
  2. First class will meet on Tuesday, January 25, 2011.
  3. Course reader is available at Copy Central, 2560 Bancroft Way (Reader No. 48)


Weekly Schedule
 

Day/Week

Topic / Major Readings

Section (*)

Jan. 25, 27

Introduction to information in the economy; macroeconomics; input-output analysis; Machlup; Porat

A.1 & A.2

Feb. 1, 3

Introduction to the economics of risk & uncertainty

Part I - Section A

Feb. 8

Intro. to Theory of the Firm and Industry Structure (see below)

 .

Feb.10, 17

Understanding the financial crisis (with an emphasis on information issues)  PPT file for lecture (approx. 4.3MB)

Part I - Section B

Feb. 15

Review class #1--Theory of Supply & Demand (see below)

.

Feb. 17

Understanding the financial crisis (part 2)

.

Feb. 22

 "Where are they now?"(student  reports) .

Feb. 24

NO CLASS

.

Mar. 1

 Review class #2--Market Equilibrium .

Mar. 3

 Information as an input (Hayes & Erickson, Braunstein);
Unbalanced growth (Baumol)		 A.3 & B

Mar. 8

NO CLASS

.

Mar. 10

Review class #3--Creative Pricing (see link below)

.

Mar. 15

Market failures: monopoly, externalities, information asymmetries
Bandwagon effects & network externalities

D & E

Mar. 17

Economies of scale & scope (Bailey & Friedlaender)

A.3 & C

Mar. 29

Technical compatibility standards
(Additional readings are linked to the course outline)

F & G

Mar. 31

Coase's Theorem, Intellectual property rights (esp. databases);
Coasian links: "Proof" that 2nd conjecture is incorrect, additional notes and links.

H & I.1

Apr. 5-7

Telecom: Regulation and deregulation of local telephone service, with a focus on transition problems.
Reading: "Economic Issues of Local Regulatory Forbearance" (PDF, PPT)

J & K

Apr. 12-14

Telecom & Mass Media: Competition in the delivery of video services
Reading: "Expected Consumer Benefits from Wired Video Competition in California" (various links, PPT)

J & K

April 19 - 28

Student presentations

.

May 5

Papers due

.

 

 

.

 

 

.

NOTE: (*) These sections are numbered to match the web version of the course outline.


General Information

Three Tuesdays in February (??) will be used for economics review sessions.  More detail is available below.

"Review" classes

 

 

Frank & Bernanke

Case & Fair

Lecture/Topic

1st ed.

2nd ed.

3rd ed.

8th ed.

1 – Introduction

1-3

1-2

1-2

1-2

- Supply & Demand

4

3

3

3

- Competitive Supply; Costs

6

6

6

7-9

2 - Market Equilibrium

8-9

8-9

8, 10

12-13

3 – Dead-weight Loss

 

 

 

 

Monopolistic competition & Oligopoly

10

10

11

14

Externalities & Property rights

11

11

12

15

Economics of Information

12

12

13

15

Introduction to Macroeconomics

17-18

17-18

17-18

18-19

 

One useful text is Frank & Bernanke, Principles of Economics, McGraw-Hill 2002, 2004, or 2007. (ISBN 0073125679 for the 3rd edition) The other option is Case & Fair, Principles of Economics, 8th edition (Pearson). It is assigned for Econ. 1 this semester.

The text book websites are at:

(Frank & Bernecke) http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0073125679/information_center_view0/

(Case & Fair, 8th edition) http://wps.prenhall.com/bp_case_econ_8

There are PPT lectures and other supplementary materials for each chapter at the web sites.
Almost any other reasonably good, reasonably current text will work as a substitute.  Most chapters should have direct parallels in every book.

REVIEW #0--Feb. 8

Introduction to the Theory of the Firm

R. Coase, "The Nature of the Firm" Economica, Vol. 4, No. 16 (November 1937); reprinted everywhere. Available at: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/119896448/PDFSTART

R Coase, "The Institutional Structure of Production" (Lecture to the memory of Alfred Nobel, December 9, 1991). Available at: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/1991/coase-lecture.html

G. Stigler, "The Division of Labor is Limited by the Extent of the Market", Jour. Pol. Econ,.Vol. 59, No. 3 (Jun., 1951), pp. 185-193; reprinted everywhere. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1826433.

G. Stigler, "The Process and Progress of Economics" (Lecture to the memory of Alfred Nobel, December 8, 1982). Available at: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/1982/stigler-lecture.html

REVIEW #1--ASSIGNMENT FOR  Feb. 15:


REVIEW #2--ASSIGNMENT FOR Mar. 1: 

REVIEW #3--ASSIGNMENT FOR Mar. 10:

Assignments, etc.

NOTES: