Course Materials for MBA201a
Fall Semester 2009 -- Professor Catherine Wolfram
This page last updated on
10/17/09
Contents
Contact Information and Office Hours
Professor Catherine Wolfram, F651, phone: 642-2588, email: wolfram@haas.berkeley.edu
Office hours: By appointment
Sharat Raghavan, GSI, F529, phone: 643-1416, email:
sharat_raghavan@haas.berkeley.edu
Office hours: By appointment
Class Notes
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Lecture 1, 8/27: Markets Overview,
Introduction to Decision Analysis,
Arbitrage Exercise
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Lecture 2, 9/1: Value of
Information
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Lecture 3, 9/3: Real Options;
Economic Costs
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Lecture 4, 9/8: Cost Functions
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Lecture 5, 9/10: Summary of main lessons from
JDCW
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Lecture 6, 9/15: No slides
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Lecture 7, 9/17: Price
Discrimination; Colonial Homes Spreadsheet
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Lecture 8, 9/22: Versioning (In-class
exercise with answers)
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Lecture 9, 9/24: More
advanced pricing
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Lecture 10, 9/29: Entry, Exit and Long Run Equilibrium
(full set of slides)
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Lecture 11, 10/1: Aluminum spreadsheet
projected in class
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Lecture 12, 10/6: Strategic
Thinking
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Lecture 13, 10/8: Bertrand Trap
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Lecture 14, 10/13: Extra topics:
externalities and imperfect information (Note: I will also spend a little
time describing a model based on Oliver Williamson's work.)
Main take-aways;
List of topics covered
Class Notes for Section
- Section 1, 9/4, Math Review &
Problem Set 1
- Section 2, 9/11, Costs & Problem
Set 2
- Midterm Review, 9/16, Overview
- Section 4, 9/28, Pricing
- Section 5, 10/2, Long Run & Short
Run
- Section 6, 10/9, Game Theory &
Review
TreePlan Add-in for Excel
Treeplan is an Excel plug-in that allows you to form decision trees in
excel and have it automatically calculate expected values (when you give
it the payouts and probabilities). It probably is not worth using
for the relatively small decision trees we use in BA201a, but you might
find it useful in the future. You can get a free trial version at
the Treeplan Website.
Problem Sets and Answer Sheets
Case Discussion Questions
Other Useful and/or Interesting Material
Old Exams and Extra Problems
MIDTERMS
Notes on previous midterms: question 3 on 2006 was directly based on a
problem set question that I did not use this year, so you wouldn’t get something
like that. Also, both midterms have perfectly competitive markets questions
which you’re unlikely to get since Steve Tadelis has not emphasized solving
those models as much as I have.
FINAL EXAMS
Exam Solutions
Midterm
Final