Courses Exchange Display 2023-2024

Course Description To PDF
Course title Introduction into the Information Society
Course code EBC2018
ECTS credits 6,5
Assessment Whole/Half Grades
Period
Period Start End Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri
1 4-9-2023 20-10-2023 X X
Level Intermediate
Coordinator Stefan Terstiege
For more information: s.terstiege@maastrichtuniversity.nl
Language of instruction English
Goals
The objective of this course is to understand the impact of information on the economy and society. After having learned basic theory on oligopolistic markets and the economics of (asymmetric) information, this knowledge is applied to analyse markets that are characterized by factors related to information, such as: infrastructure, standardization, compatibility, intellectual property rights and patenting, versioning, switching costs and lock-in, consumptive externalities (network effects), and reputation.
Description
This course is an extension of the first-year course Microeconomics (EBC1010) with a focus on markets for information goods. The term “information good” is very broad and includes, in principle, everything that can be digitized, such as books, databases, music, movies, software, etc. As a consequence, trade often takes place via the Internet. We study several topics such as pricing, network effects, and lock-in. One focus will be on platforms (e.g., Apple’s App Store, Google Search Engine, Netflix), which are often key players in markets for information goods. At the beginning of the course, we introduce concepts from pricing and game theory, reviewing and extending contents of the course Microeconomics (EBC1010); later, we apply these concepts.
Literature
The textbooks for this course are usually: * Belleflamme, P. & Peitz, M. (2021). The Economics of Platforms: Concepts and Strategy. Cambridge University Press. * Bonnano, G. (2015). Game Theory. Open access textbook. * Perloff, J.M. Microeconomics. Pearson Addison Wesley. The edition will be stated in the syllabus. * Shapiro, C. & Varian, H. (1998). Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy. Harvard Business School Press. In addition, we read academic articles.
Prerequisites
It is expected that the students who take this course have a solid knowledge in microeconomics at the level of having passed the first-year course Microeconomics (EBC1010). It is also expected that the students have prior knowledge of basic calculus and statistics, corresponding to familiarity with the topics covered in Quantitative Methods I (EBC1006) and Quantitative Methods II (EBC1034).
Teaching methods (indicative; course manual is definitive) PBL / Presentation / Assignment
Assessment methods (indicative; course manual is definitive) Written Exam / Presentation
Evaluation in previous academic year For the complete evaluation of this course please click "here"
This course belongs to the following programmes / specialisations
Bachelor Economics and Business Economics - Economics and Management of Information Year 2 Compulsory Course(s)
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