Held in English

Overview

This course addresses three major topics from an economic perspective.  (1) The impact of information technology on the structures and effectiveness of markets, firms and other mechanisms for coordination.  A major focus here is tradeoffs inherent in choosing among different ways of organizing various human activities and how IT affects these tradeoffs. (2) The economics of supply and competition in markets for information products and services, including strategies for designing information good offerings.  (3) The economics of network effects and network industries.  The class begins by introducing foundational theoretical frameworks advanced by economists and other scholars to explain: (a) the internal logics underlying the vast and diverse array of institutions employed to organize economic and social activities, and (b) why different activities are organized differently and employ different coordination mechanisms.  We then ask whether and how information technologies change the comparative advantages of alternative organizational forms and become the impetus for institutional change. The emphasis is on developing an intuitive understanding of the logic underlying each of the various analytical frameworks and an appreciation of their limitations.  Readings cover both theory and empirical evidence.