LOJA10280 Contracts and Cooperatives

Details
Responsible DepartmentInstitute of Food and Resource Economics

Earliest Possible YearMSc. 1 year
DurationOne block
 
Credits7.5 (ECTS)
 
Level of CourseMSc
 
ExaminationFinal Examination

oral examination


No aid allowed

Description of Examination: 20 minutes oral examination without preparation but based on a written synopsis.

Weight: 100%



7-point scale, no second examiner
 
Requirement for Attending ExamA written synopsis is a prerequisite for attending the exam but is not evaluated in itself.
 
Organisation of TeachingLectures, exercises, assignments, group work and group discussions.
 
Block PlacementBlock 2
Week Structure: B
 
Language of InstructionEnglish
 
Optional PrerequisitesIndustrial Organization
 
Restrictionsnone
 
Course Content
Part 1 Cooperatives:
a. What is a cooperative?
b. Economic objectives and conditions.
c. Single product payment schemes.
d. Multi product payments schemes.
Part 2 Contract Theory:
a. What is contract theory?
b. Hidden information, adverse selection
c. Hidden action, moral hazard
d. Contract design, rules of thumb
e. Examples of production contracts
 
Teaching and learning Methods
The instruction consists of a combination of lectures (which review the basic theories and models) exercises, case studies, text reading and discussion.
 
Learning Outcome
Learning Outcome:
The objective of this course is to learn to apply the concepts and techniques taught in the microeconomics theory course and other related courses in economic theory and econometrics, to problems faced by decision-makers in the agri-food industry and business organizations, as well as policy analysts.

After completing the course the student should be able to:

Knowledge:
Students are expected to know the basic concepts, models and results from the theoretical and the applied literature on
- Contract theory (in particular with applications on the agri-food industry)
- Cooperatives, pricing schemes and revenue sharing rules.

Skills:
Students should be able to understand and practice
- modern contract theory, specifically: Complete contracting, Incomplete contracting and Mechanism design.
- modern economic theory concerning cooperatives, specifically: organizationally setup and payment schemes.

Competences:
Students should be able to identify and analyze current issues related to:
- Incentives, risk sharing, coordination and information in the agri-food industry
- decisions in cooperatives
 
Course Literature
Bogetoft and Olesen, Cooperatives and Payment Schemes, CBS-Press, 2007.
Bogetoft and Olesen, Design of Production Contracts, CBS-Press, 2004.
Bolton and Dewatripont, Contract Theory, MIT-Press, 2005. (chapters, 1-4). Alternatively, a similar type of text book in contract theory
Hougaard, Introduction to Allocation Rules, Springer, 2009.
 
Course Coordinator
Kurt Nielsen, kun@life.ku.dk, Institute of Food and Resource Economics/Production and Technology Unit, Phone: 353-32316
 
Study Board
Study Committee NSN
 
Work Load
lectures32
theoretical exercises28
preparation125
examination1
project work20

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