微观经济学这门课~转自UC Berkeley MBA校友的博客

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上周五10月16日，刚刚把微观经济学这门课的期末考试考完，所以这课算是正式上完了。这门课正儿八经的名称叫 Economics for Business Decision Making，大家通常简称它为 Econ，主要内容是微观经济学（Microeconomics）的内容。

教授

先说说给咱上课的教授。我们一届 full-time MBA 共约240人，被分成4个班（Cohort），每个班大约将近60人。Econ 这门课有两个教授来教，每个教师分别教两个班。

另两个班的 Econ 老师是女教授 Prof. Catherine D. Wolfram（教授名录上她的页面，她的个人页面，MBA program website上有她的专门页面）:

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2010-9-1 14:42

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Catherine  D. Wolfram

Associate Professor
Barbara & Gerson Bakar Faculty Fellow
Co-Director, Energy Institute at Haas
Haas Economic Analysis and Policy Group
510-642-2588
Email: click on the envelope icon below for full email address
Academic Status: On duty
Office Hours: By appointment
Personal Homepage: http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/wolfram/
Curriculum Vitae (in PDF format, Acrobat Reader required)
LinkedIn Profile



Education

AB, Economics, Harvard University
PhD, Economics, MIT



Positions Held

At Haas since 2000
2009 - present, Co-Director, Energy Institute at Haas
2005 - present, Associate Professor of Business Administration, Haas School of Business
1997 - 2006, Faculty Research Fellow, National Bureau of Economic Research
2000 - 2005, Assistant Professor of Business Administration, Haas School of Business
1996 - 2000, Assistant Professor of Economics, Harvard University



External Service and Assignments




Faculty Scientist, Environmental Energy Technologies Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Board of Directors, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists
Associate Editor, The Economics Journal
Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research
Board of Editors, The Energy Journal
Associate Editor, Journal of Industrial Economics



Selected Papers and Publications


"Local Solutions to Global Problems: Climate Change Policies and Regulatory Jurisdiction," with James Bushnell and Carla Peterman, Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, 2008, Vol. 2 (Summer): 175-193.
"Do Markets Reduce Costs? Assessing the Impact of Regulatory Restructuring on U.S. Electric Generation Efficiency," with Kira Fabrizio and Nancy Rose, American Economic Review, 2007, Vol. 97 (September): 1250-1277.
"Inefficiencies and Market Power in Financial Arbitrage: A Study of California?s Electricity Markets," with Severin Borenstein, James Bushnell, and Christopher Knittel, Journal of Industrial Economics, 2008, Vol.56 (June): 347-378.
"Coordinating on Lower Prices: Pharmaceutical Pricing under Political Pressure," with Sara Fisher Ellison. RAND Journal of Economics 37, (Summer 2006): 325-341.
"Regulating Executive Pay: Using the Tax Code to Influence Chief Executive Officer Compensation," with Nancy L. Rose. Journal of Labor Economics 20 (April 2002): S138-S175.
"Why Do Manufacturers Issue Coupons? An Empirical Analysis of Breakfast Cereals," with Aviv Nevo. RAND Journal of Economics 33 (Summer 2002): 319-339.
"Has the "Million-Dollar Cap" Affected CEO Pay?" with Nancy Rose. American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings 90 (May 2000): 197-202.



Honors and Awards


Earl F. Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching, Evening MBA Program, 2008
Barbara and Gerson Bakar Faculty Fellow
Earl F. Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching, Evening & Weekend MBA Program, 2006
Americal Statistical Association/Energy Information Administration Research Fellow, 2004
National Science Foundation Award for Beginning Academics, 1999
American Compensation Association Emerging Scholar Program, 1997
National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship, 1995

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而教我的 Econ教授是 Prof. Steven Tadelis. 我先在 Haas 商学院教授名录上找到教授的这张照片，他穿着一件有 UC Berkeley 金黄色 logo: Cal 的花衬衫，呵呵；然后在他自己的网页上看到一张照片穿的比较正式的：

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2010-9-1 14:44

Steven  Tadelis

Associate Professor
Barbara & Gerson Bakar Faculty Fellow
Haas Business and Public Policy Group
510-643-0546
Email: click on the envelope icon below for full email address
Academic Status: On duty
Office Hours: By appointment, F581
Personal Homepage: http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/stadelis
Curriculum Vitae (in PDF format, Acrobat Reader required)
LinkedIn Profile



Education

BA, Economics, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
MSc, Economics, Techion, Haifa, Israel
PhD, Economics, Harvard University




Positions Held

At Haas since 2005

2005 - present, Associate Professor, Haas School of Business
2006 - 2009, Associate Dean for Strategic Planning, Haas School of Business
1997 - 2005, Assistant Professor, Stanford University



External Service and Assignments


Editorial Board, American Economic Review
Associate Editor, International Journal of Industrial Organization



Current Research and Interests


Economics of organization
Procurement contracting
Theory of the firm and industrial organization
Contract theory
Game theory



Selected Papers and Publications


"Auctions versus Negotiations in Procurement: An Empirical Analysis," with Patrick Bajari and Robert McMillan. Journal of Law, Economics and Organization.
"Contracting for Government Services: Theory and Evidence from U.S. Cities," with Jonathan Levin. Journal of Industrial Economics, forthcoming.
"Profit Sharing and the Role of Professional Partnerships," with Jonathan Levin. Quarterly Journal of Economics 120, no. 1 (2005): 131-172.
"The Market for Reputations as an Incentive Mechanism," Journal of Political Economy 110, no. 4 (2002): 854-882.
"Complexity, Flexibility and the Make-or-Buy Decision." American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings 92, no. 2 (2002): 433-437.
"Incentives versus Transaction Costs: A Theory of Procurement Contracts," with Patrick Bajari. Rand Journal of Economics 32, no. 3 (Autumn 2001): 387-407.
"What's in a Name? Reputation as a Tradeable Asset." American Economic Review 89, no. 3 (1999): 548-563.



Teaching


Economic Analysis for Business Decisions, MBA 201A
The Economics of Institutions, PhD
Mechanism Design and Agency Theory, Economics 206, PhD



Honors and Awards


Barbara and Gerson Bakar Faculty Fellow
Phi Beta Kappa Undergraduate Teaching Award, Stanford University, 2005
Department of Economics Advising Award, Stanford University, 2002
W. Glenn Campbell and Rita Ricardo-Campbell National Fellow, Hoover Institution, 1999-2000
Review of Economic Studies Euorpean Tour Speaker, May 1997
Alfred P. Sloan Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, 1995-1996
National Science Foundation Research Grants: 1999-2000, 2000-2002, 2003-2008

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2010-9-1 14:45

Associate Professor

Business and Public Policy

My research aspires to advance our understanding of the roles played by two central institutions ---firms and contractual agreements---and how these institutions facilitate the creation of surplus. Within the broader framework of the role of firms and contracts, I have focused on four main research topics. First, what causes a firm's reputation to be a valuable, tradeable asset, and how does it affect the behavior of individuals in the firm? Second, how does organizational form affect firm behavior, in particular, what role do profit sharing partnerships perform? Third, which characteristics of a procurement transaction will influence the choice of contractual form that a buyer should devise? Finally, my work on private sector procurement has led me to investigate the determinants of public sector procurement, and explore the public policy implications of efficient procurement by local governments.

To learn more about my work, my curriculum vita, or my teaching at Haas, please use the links at the top of this page. You can also use the link "IDS270 Seminar" above to view the current schedule of the "Institutional Analysis Workshop", more commonly known as "Oliver Williamson's Seminar".

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Prof. Tadelis 来自以色列，在以色列的海法大学（University of Haifa, Israel）读的经济学本科，1997年哈佛的经济学博士毕业，然后97-05年在斯坦福大学的经济学系做了八年的 Assistant Professor，然后2005年就来到 UC Berkeley Haas 商学院做 Associate Professor，最近几年还兼做了 Haas 商学院的 Associate Dean for Strategic Planning.


Prof. Tadelis 的课很受同学的好评和欢迎，他讲课的ppt的图解做得很清晰，对理解比较复杂的概念很有帮助，他说话语速也比较适中，又几乎没有口音，所以是几乎很标准的美式英语。

内容

那么这门课到底教了什么内容呢？是这些东西：

Module I: Basic Tools（基本工具）
Decision Trees（学了怎么画决策树，怎么求解，怎么算 Expected Value, information value 之类）
Module II: Production and Costs
学了N多成本的概念，啥叫固定成本 overhead, fixed cost, 可变成本 variable cost，边际成本 Marginal Cost，机会成本 Opportunity Cost，还有 Sunk Cost, Average Cost, Total Cost, Marginal Revenue，还有 Accounting 意义上的 cost 和经济学意义上的 cost 的区别……
Module III: Demand and Pricing
这块儿是这门课的重点部分。学习了各种定价的策略：支付意愿 WTP – Willingness To Pay, Monopoly Pricing, Elasticity, 最优化定价情况时 Marginal Costs = Marginal Revenue，怎么算最优化的价格，啥时候应该进一步生产，啥时候赶紧关掉厂子走人，区别定价 Price Discrimination, 第一度、第三度、第二度定价 1st, 3rd, 2nd Degree Pricing, 两段式 Two Part Tariffs（这解释了所有类似会员费的价格模式的背后原理）, Quantity discounts, Versioning, Bundles 等等各种定价模式。做了不少题目来算各种情况下应该如何定价。
Module IV: Long Run Market Dynamics
所谓的 Perfect Competition 情况（惨烈的市场竞争啊）下，分别看短期和长期市场的状态，长期达到何种均衡（Equilibrium），还有所谓的 Monopolistic Competition （很多传统行业，比如大街小巷的餐饮、理发美容等等行业应该就属于这种垄断性竞争，是一种不完全竞争模式）。
Module V: Market Strategy
啥叫 Strategy, dominant strategy, dominated strategy, 纳什均衡 Nash Equilibrium, 博弈论, Bertrand Trap, 各种拍卖和竞标的模式 Auction and Bidding, English Auction, Dutch Auction, First-Price Sealed Bid, Second-Price Sealed Bid.
Module VI: Incentives and Organization in Firms
讨论了在现实中经常遇到的需要决策的情形：Make or Buy? 自己干还是请人干？兼并、并购供应商形成 Vertically Integration 的好处和坏处，组织机构中不同人的不同动机和利益驱动……
所有这些内容是在短短的7个星期、14节课（每节课两小时）的课时完成的，其间要求读了不少案例, 不少来自华尔街日报等报刊杂志的近年文章，还要求每个学习小组考察一个公司的定价模式，写篇论文，还有期中和期末两次闭卷的考试，考试题目很多是定价的计算题，目的当然是考察你是否理解和掌握上面这些概念。

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我的个人感受

说实话，我自己对这门课的个人感受颇为曲折和心境复杂。

这来源于以前工作当中对定价问题的困惑。以前我做产品管理的时候，涉足过给产品定价的问题。我弄过的产品都是大型的企业级、电信级产品，而且往往是大型复杂软件和专用硬件紧密绑定的产品，有的可能是按照某功能一次性收费，有的按照电信网络用户数定价，有的是纯技术功能就按照技术协议接口的复杂度来收费，还往往涉及到和其他关联产品、系统一起搭配销售时候的折扣、绑定销售价格、单独销售价格的问题，还有关联的硬件、数据库、第三方产品的价格变化的时候如何改变我们的价格的问题，还有关联的客户支持服务的年限、服务水平、相应的定价问题……总之定价颇为复杂。而当年在小公司做的时候，最终就是公司同事和领导商量一下，基本上参考市场上竞争对手的价格体系了，而在大公司做的时候，公司有专门的 pricing manager来帮助做定价，但我自己对 pricing 还是挺一头雾水的。再加上众所周知，近些年在IT行业，开源和免费软件日益成为主流，我也很好奇如何在商业上运作一个 open source 产品，如果是要给 service 定价来赚钱，那么如何给 service 定价……。所以来读MBA之前，我还是很期待谁能给我上上课，讲讲到底如何 pricing，因为有好多疑问和困惑。

带着这许多疑问和困惑，可想而知我一开始对这门课还是期许很高的。但很快我就发现，这课还是很学术化的：上课讨论的那些模型还是很学术化的，先是做太多假设和假定，然后搞出一些很理论化的线性模型（当然，题目本身往往还是有点费脑子的），因此基本上没法直接在实际工作当中用……这时候我不免有一些些失望，心中老是在问 “学这玩意儿有什么用啊？难道就成天算这些象牙塔里面的理论模型？”。但后来很快我也想通了，也联想到以前读本科时候很多课程也是这样。这是为了让你理解基本概念和基本理论的课，这不是学打字这样的出门立马就能用的职业技能培训；现实生活的问题当然要复杂很多，但要理解基本概念，就只能先从理论化的简化模型学起。

等学完了，再回头看学校网站上对这门课的简要介绍：

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Economics for Business Decision Making

Business success depends on the successful positioning of the firm and the management of its resources. The goal of this course is to think systematically about achieving competitive advantage through the management of the firm’s resources. Students analyze management decisions concerning real options, cost determination, pricing, and market entry and exit. We will use readings and cases along with class discussion to develop practical insights into managing for competitive advantage. Four hours of lecture per week for seven weeks. Prerequisites: Knowledge of calculus and algebra assumed.

这时才有点理解 think systematically 的意思。好吧，确实学了这门课也还是不能完全解决我对 pricing 问题的疑问（况且这是微观经济学的课程，不仅仅是关于pricing，而且第二年还可以选修一门单独的 Pricing 课呢）。我现在觉得学完这门课，大概就是开始有一点点从经济学、成本收益、供求关系、定价策略等角度思考问题的感觉了，这大概就是所谓的 think systematically . 特别是对我这样理工科专业出身、后来又做具体技术工作、完全没有学过一丁点经济学知识的人，至少还是很扫盲的。

而且，据说这门课还是以后学很多其他课的基础，所以拭目以待以后有用到这些概念的时候吧。

顺便讲点小花絮。Prof. Tadelis 喜欢巧克力，讲各种 pricing 的时候很喜欢拿卖巧克力做例子，呵呵。而我们的最后一堂Econ课，是上周一10月12日上午，那时候正好大家刚刚得知我们 Haas 的经济学老教授 Professor Oliver Williamson 获得了今年的经济学诺贝尔奖（Haas新闻链接， UC Berkeley新闻链接，诺贝尔奖官方网站链接，Wall Street Journal 对诺贝尔奖和 Prof. Williamson 的报道，里面居然还提到了 Prof. Steve Tadelis），而少壮派的 Prof. Tadelis 以前和 老教授 Prof. Williamson 合作做过相关的科研，所以那最后一堂课上，Prof. Tadelis 也是相当的兴奋。我猜想，他大概在憧憬二十年后，他或许也能获诺贝尔奖吧。呵呵。