Microeconomics I, II, and III Macroeconomics I, II, and III Econometrics I, II, and III from the MAEs core sequence

This course is designed to bring students to the research frontier in contract theory. Students that plan to do research in all areas that involve an understanding of contracts and negotiations are provided with tools and concepts to model and analyze existing contracts, the design of contracts and their dynamic consequences. Beyond studying tools, we put contract theory to work: we look at applications on the research frontier and the lessons contract theory teaches us about them. After successful completion, students should have the tools and background to do research on contract theory and/or apply state of the art concepts to their applications of interest.

Part A: Techniques. 1. Introduction to Dynamic Optimization, Optimal Control, Dynamic Games 2. A refresher on Moral Hazard 3. Experimentation Models Part B: Applications 1. Innovation 2. Collaboration 3. Industrial Organization 4. Organizational Economics 5. Political Economy 6. Behavioural Economics 7. Theoretical Advances

Lectures Student Presentations Written Reports and Research Proposals Class Discussion Teamwork Office hours The focus of the lectures is the introduction of lectures is to introduce and repeat techniques and concepts. Students are then preparing individually or in teams presentations of recent applications of those tools on the basis of current working papers or recent publications. We discuss the papers, their modeling choices and alternatives in class. Students are then asked to use the insights gained to either provide a report on an existing paper or present a related research idea of their own.