| Responsible Department | Institute of Food and Resource Economics | ||||||||||||
| Earliest Possible Year | MSc. 1 year to MSc. 2 year | ||||||||||||
| Duration | One block | ||||||||||||
| Credits | 7.5 (ECTS) | ||||||||||||
| Level of Course | MSc | ||||||||||||
| Examination | Continuous Assessment written examination and oral examination Portfolio Examination All aids allowed Description of Examination: The exam takes the form of a student seminar, at which all students are assessed at a common session. Each student makes a presentation of their own paper and performs as a discussant for another student's paper. Weight: Written Paper 50% 'Referee' report and discussant performance 25% In class presentation 25% 7-point scale, internal examiner | ||||||||||||
| Requirement for Attending Exam | - An individual paper submittet and approved. Topic chosen in agreement with the teacher (max 15 pages). A short "referee" report on another students paper as well as playing the role as a discussant | ||||||||||||
| Organisation of Teaching | a. Lectures by the instructor b. Exercises | ||||||||||||
| Block Placement | Block 3 Week Structure: B | ||||||||||||
| Language of Instruction | English | ||||||||||||
| Optional Prerequisites | 290055 Micro Economics Any course in microeconomics at intermediate or graduate level | ||||||||||||
| Restrictions | None | ||||||||||||
| Course Content | |||||||||||||
| We study leading economic literature on selected advanced topics in microeconomics. The specific topics to be discussed in class will be determined at the beginning of the course and may include (but not necessarily be limited to) . Allocation and externalities in networks . Auctions and mechanism design . Advanced production economics . Contract design . Methods for decision support The literature will mainly be theoretical, but the curriculum may also contain surveys or applied and empirical papers. Additional topics are investigated by the students themselves guided by their own interests. | |||||||||||||
| Teaching and learning Methods | |||||||||||||
| Students are expected to display a high level of self-study and independent organisation of their own learning. There are no exercise classes and lectures are designed to support learning rather than set out to cover a specific curriculum. The course consists of three parts. The first part (roughly half the course) will go through fundamental as well as recent results on the selected topics in a series of lectures. In the second part (roughly the second half of the course), there are no lectures and the students will work on individual papers. The specific topic of these papers is agreed with the teacher and students are going to demonstrate that they are able to read and understand scientific articles and put them into the context of the topics discussed during lectures. The third part of the course is a student seminar, which replaces a formal examination. During the seminar, all students present and discuss their papers in a common session. | |||||||||||||
| Learning Outcome | |||||||||||||
| The main objective of the course is to present the students for important topics in microeconomics and make them familiar with recent advanced literature in the area. Hence, students will be trained in reading scientific articles from leading economics journals. Studying journal articles is very different from reading textbooks and may be very challenging and time consuming for the students. An important part of the course is to help students overcome these challenges and to show them how to approach such literature in a fruitful way. Upon completing this course, the students should be able to Knowledge: . summarise the main contributions of the articles discussed in class as well as their individual paper. Skills: . study scientific journal articles with theoretical, empirical and/or applied content within the area of microeconomics and - identify the central contributions of the article - explain the main results in terms of assumptions, methodology, and economic intuition - relate the article to other relevant research within the area - identify potential questions for further analysis as well as possible strategies for addressing those questions Competences: . formulate a structured and coherent paper in English on a topic within the area of microeconomics . make a short and structured presentation of scholarly work (own contributions as well as published work) . engage in group discussions in English . critically and constructively reflect on the work of other scholars (fellow students as well as published work) | |||||||||||||
| Course Literature | |||||||||||||
| a. R. Chambers, Applied production analysis, Cambridge 1988 b. P. Bogetoft and H.B. Olesen, (2004), "Design of production contracts", Copenhagen: CBS Press c. P. Bogetoft and H.B. Olesen, (2007), "Cooperatives and payment schemes", Copenhagen: CBS Press d. J.L. Hougaard, (2009), 'An Introduction to Allocation Rules', Springer. e. Journal articles | |||||||||||||
| Course Coordinator | |||||||||||||
| Jens Leth Hougaard, jlh@foi.dk, Institute of Food and Resource Economics/Production and Technology Unit, Phone: 353-36814 | |||||||||||||
| Study Board | |||||||||||||
| Study Committee NSN | |||||||||||||
| Work Load | |||||||||||||
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