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ECON4825 - Empirical Industrial Organization

Facts about this course:
Credits:10
Level:Advanced course at master's level
Teaching semester:Autumn 2010
Examination semester:Autumn 2010
Language of instruction:English
Administrated by:Department of Economics
Detailed course information - Current and previous semesters:

Course content

The course provides an overview of main empirical models used to study oligopolistic markets and teaches the students how to analyse and apply different econometrics tools to the study of competition and regulation. The course will cover the following topics:

  1. basic nonlinear econometrics
  2. estimation of demand and production/cost functions
  3. entry models
  4. applications to merger analysis, advertising and auctions

This course will not cover advanced dynamic models of oligopolistic competition.

Learning outcomes

The students shall become familiar with the relevant literature on empirical industrial organization. They should be familiar with a set of econometric techniques to estimate basic models of supply and demand in most markets. They should be able to formulate structural models of competition, design feasible econometric techniques, implement computational estimation, test hypothesis and perform policy analysis.

Admission

Students who are admitted to study programmes at UiO must each semester register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for in StudentWeb.

Students enrolled in other Master's Degree Programmes can, on application, be admitted to the course if this is cleared by their own study programme.

International applicants, if you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures for international applicants.

The examination in this course is not available for external candidates. Only students admitted to the course may sit for the examination.

Prerequisites

Formal prerequisites

Bachelor degree in Economics, or equivalent

Recommended prior knowledge

ECON3200 - Microeconomics and game theory / ECON4200 - Microeconomics and game theory or ECON3210 - Decisions, markets and incentives / ECON4210 - Decisions, markets and incentives and ECON3150 - Introductory Econometrics / ECON4150 - Introductory Econometrics or ECON4135 - Applied statistical analysis for the social sciences

Teaching

Lectures: 2 hours per week throughout the semester.

Seminars: 2 hours per week through parts of the semester.

Criteria for access to teaching resources

A student who has had the compulsory term papers approved, is not entitled to hand in the term papers again. A student who has previously been admitted to the course, but who has not completed the compulsory term papers, is entitled to repeat the course, contingent on available capacity.

Exam information

A 3-hour written school exam. Passing the portfolio assessment (containing two compulsory assignments) is a prerequisite for being allowed to take the written school exam.

When the compulsory portfolio assessment is approved, the result will be registered. Students can retake the written exam later without handing in compulsory assignments again.

Exam resources

No special exam resources are allowed.

Language of examination

The problem set will be given in English. Answers can be given in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or in English. See § 6.4 i Forskrift om studier og eksamener ved Universitetet i Oslo .

The language of examination is Norwegian. You can apply to the administrators of the course to be given the exam text in English. It is possible to submit your response in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or English.

Assessment and grading

Course grades are awarded on a descending scale using alphabetic grades from A to E for passes and F for fail. Read more about the grading system .

An external auditor regularly evaluates the academic quality of the course, including the form of exam used on the course.

Explanations and appeals

Students can request an explanation of their grades, and can also appeal against their grades or make a complaint about formal examination errors. Read more about explanations and appeals

Possibility of make-up exams and re-takes

The Department of Economics has passed following resolution for ECON-courses: It will no longer be possible for candidates to register for an exam in a lower level course after having passed exams in intermediate and advanced level courses in the same subject area (also where there are no pre-requisites that apply to the intermediate course). Further information can be found here.

Students who might wish to retake the exam later, are not guaranteed that the course is ever repeated with a similar reading list, nor that the exam arrangement will be the same.

You can usually resit an exam, but the conditions depend on whether you had a valid reason for absence from the regular exam. Read more about resitting an exam .

Withdrawing from exams and limits on re-takes

A student can sit for this exam up to 3 times. If a student wishes to withdraw from the exam, s/he must do this in StudentWeb at least two weeks prior to the first day of the exam. Failure to do so will be counted as one of the three opportunities to sit for the exam.

Exam options for students with special needs

Students may apply for access to alternative exam resources or exam forms on the basis of chronic illness and/or special needs that create a marked disadvantage to other students in the exam situation. Mothers who are breastfeeding may apply for extra time to complete the exam.

Contact us

Department of Economics

Visiting address: 
Moltke Moes vei 31, Eilert Sundts house, 12th floor

Visiting hours: 
10.15-11.00 and 12.15-15.00

Postal address: 
P.O box 1095 Blindern
0317 Oslo

Phone: +47 22855127
Fax: +47 22855035
E-mail: 
Web: http://www.sv.uio.no/econ/english/