Prof Richard Steinberg MAR 4.13

This course is available on the CEMS Exchange, Global MSc in Management, Global MSc in Management (CEMS MIM), MBA Exchange, MSc in Applicable Mathematics, MSc in Economics and Management, MSc in Management (1 Year Programme), MSc in Management and Strategy and MSc in Operations Research & Analytics. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course is capped at 45. Students on the waiting list will be selected based on their academic background.

Students should have a course equivalent to the LSE course Quantitative Methods (Mathematics) (MA107), which covers techniques of basic calculus and linear algebra, with emphasis on their application to economic problems. Students should also have some knowledge of probability.

The course provides an introduction to auctions and game theory. Topics covered are: noncooperative games, cooperative games, social choice, sequential and multi-stage games, auctions, and combinatorial auctions. In addition to the theory, a significant portion of the course will discuss applications.  Specifically, four one-hour lectures each will be devoted to a single real-world application: caller display, competing Internet service providers, public housing space, and spectrum. We will also devote a two-hour lecture session to a Harvard Business School case based on five real-world applications of auctions: publishing, professional sport, on-line auctions, state privatization, and mergers and acquisitions.

16 hours of lectures and 12 hours of seminars in the WT. 2 hours of lectures in the ST.

A reading week will take place during Week 6. There will be no teaching during this week.

Very full lecture notes are provided, and every week a set of problems is given out in the lecture. These are discussed in the following seminars.

• Book: P. Cramton, Y. Shoham, and R. Steinberg, eds., Combinatorial Auctions.
• Book chapter: ‘Auction Pricing’, R. Steinberg, Chapter 27 in O. Ozer and R. Phillips, eds., Oxford Handbook of Pricing Management. 
• Case study: ‘Auction Vignettes’, Harvard Business School Publishing.

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours) in the spring exam period.