Courses Master Display 2016-2017

Course Description To PDF
Course title Technology, Networks and the New Economy
Course code EBC4142
ECTS credits 6,5
Assessment Whole/Half Grades
Period
Period Start End Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri
2 31-10-2016 22-12-2016 C
Level Advanced
Coordinator Robin Cowan
For more information: r.cowan@maastrichtuniversity.nl
Language of instruction English
Goals
The purpose of this course is to understand the interaction between network structures, knowledge creation and diffusion, and economic performance at various levels of aggregation.
Description
The course examines theoretical and empirical research on the economics of networks, particularly as applied to technology and innovation. Recent research in economics and business has addressed the fact that almost all economic agents interact directly with only a few other agents and that this set of agents changes only slowly over time. When this is the case, a network model is more relevant in capturing the nature of economic interaction than is a pure market model. This is the basic premise of this course. We start by introducing concepts of social network analysis, as this is the analytical basis for research on networks. With these definitions, and technical definitions of the statistics used to describe network structures, we move to a deeper analysis. Part of the goal is to describe existing, relevant economic networks; part of the goal is to understand how networks form and evolve; part of the goal is to understand how an agent’s position in a network influence the agent’s performance; part of the goal is to understand how different networks perform in aggregate, in achieving some social goal. Empirically, there is a heavy focus on strategic alliance networks (which makes this course of interests to business students as well as economists). Two important empirical question involve how links within a network form and dissolve; and how a firm’s position in the network affects is performance. Theoretically, we use both game theory and numerical simulation tools. The basic questions here have to do with issues of stability (a network is a collection of bilateral links; a stable network is one in which agents have no incentives to make new, or break existing links) and efficiency (given a social welfare function, some network structures may perform better than others).
Literature
We make use of recent journal articles.
Prerequisites
Intermediate microeconomics. An intermediate level of economics is recommended. Exchange students should have an intermediate or advanced level of micro economics
Teaching methods (indicative; course manual is definitive) PBL / Papers
Assessment methods (indicative; course manual is definitive) Final Paper
Evaluation in previous academic year For the complete evaluation of this course please click "here"
This course belongs to the following programmes / specialisations
Master Business Research Free Electives
Master Business Research Track OR Free Electives
Master Economic and Financial Research Track Econometrics Technology, Innovation & Industrial Dynamics
Master Economic and Financial Research Technology, Innovation & Industrial Dynamics