The course deals with two major topics in empirical industrial organization: estimation of demand models and estimation of models of entry. The students will learn the theoretical underpinning of the various methodological approach presented and will be guided toward their implementation. A series of application in academic papers will be presented and discussed in class to sharpen students’ critical assessment of research making use of the methodologies covered in class.

Knowledge and understanding: The course will analyze the econometric challenges presented by estimation of demand and entry models and introduce several tool to overcome them. The students will learn advantages and disadvantages of all of them and will be able to match each question of interest with the appropriate methodological approach. Applying knowledge and understanding: The student will learn to implement the techniques learned in simple examples with data provided by the instructor. Making judgments: Students will be able to read and understand academic literature in IO. They will be challenged to discuss in class merits and limitations of papers presented in class or assigned as reading before the class. Communications skills: The tools learned during the course will enable students to disseminate their ideas through careful empirical analysis grounded in theoretical modeling. This will be helpful, for example, when drafting their master thesis. The interactive nature of the class and the discussion of selected papers will help students developing the ability to discuss in a clear and articulated fashion their opinion on a piece of research. Learning skills: Through the lens of the toolkit provided in the course, the students will be able to gain an understanding grounded in empirical evidence of relevant business strategies (pricing, mergers,..) and of policy decisions (antitrust rulings). They will be able to formulate and answer questions of interest in the field of industrial organization.

The first part of the course will introduce estimation of static demand models. The second part will deal with static entry models.

The syllabus posted online will provide references to academic papers that constitute the reading list for the class.

Two classes per week will be lectures where concepts will be introduced, trying to challenge students to participate and be proactive (ask questions, make observations). The third weekly lecture will be a reverse classroom session where students will go to the board to solve the coding exercise assigned in the weekly problem sets. Then, we will all discuss a paper assigned in advanced.

There will be a written final exam on the entire program of the course. The exam will consist of three or four open questions to assess the understanding of the core concept of the course and test whether the students are able to apply them in a critical fashion. There will be weekly problem set assignments whose solutions students will be called to present in front of the class. The performance in the review session will provide evidence of the level of communication skills acquired and display the understanding of the material as well as the ability to use the concept learned in class to solve actual empirical challenges. Students participation in class will be encouraged and will be considered in the final grade. The final grade will be based on the performance in the final exam (60%), performance in the review sessions (20%) and class participation (20%)

Individual interview with the instructor.