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 Economics and Management, MSc in Management (1 Year Programme) and MSc in Management and Strategy. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course may be capped/subject to controlled access. For further information about the course's availability, please see the MG Elective Course Selection Moodle page (https://moodle.lse.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=3840).

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. (Students planning to enrol on MG473 Negotiation Analysis might wish to consider enrolling on this course as well, as the topic of auctions and game theory is complementary to that of negotiation analysis.  Note, however, that MG409 Auctions and Game Theory has a mathematics pre-requisite.)

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.

In its Ethics Code, LSE upholds a commitment to intellectual freedom. This means we will protect the freedom of expression of our students and staff and the right to engage in healthy debate in the classroom.

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.