Programplaner og emneplaner - Student

EPN-V2

Course name in Norwegian: Næringsøkonomi

Study programme: Master Programme in Business Administration

Weight: 10.0 ECTS

Year of study: 2025/2026

Programme description: Master Programme in Business Administration (2025 HØST )

Course history

Introduction

I dette kurset vil vi lære å bruke spillteori for å analysere markeder med imperfekt konkurranse, noe som kjennetegner et flertall av markedene studentene senere vil komme ut for. Kurset vil gi studenten en dypere forståelse av de underliggende mekanismene bak bedriftenes valg av strategier i slike markeder. Når få bedrifter konkurrerer i et marked med et fåtall aktører, vil det være strategisk interaksjon mellom bedriftene - en bedrifts strategivalg (f.eks. prissetting, produksjonskvantum, markedsføring) påvirker strategivalget til andre bedrifter.

Teorien vil knyttes tett mot aktuelle eksempler fra en rekke markeder og studentene vil i løpet av kurset bli i stand til å vurdere konkrete konkurransepolitiske problemstillinger.

Recommended preliminary courses

None

Required preliminary courses

The exam papers are assessed by one internal and one external examiner.

At least 25% of the exam papers will be assessed by two examiners. The grades awarded for the papers assessed by two examiners form the basis for determining the level for all the exam papers.

Learning outcomes

Jacopo Bizzotto

Simen Ulsaker

Content

After completing the course, the student should have the following overall learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

The student has specialized insight into

how people's decision making processes can fail to match economically rational predictions: context dependence and heuristics leading to systematic biases (for example framing effects, reference dependence and loss aversion)
how behavioral models of people's uncertainty preferences can match some observed behavior (for example certainty effects, Allais paradox, Rabin's paradox) better than expected utility theory (for example prospect theory, disappointment and regret aversion)
how behavioral models of people's time preferences can match some observed behavior (for example demand for commitment devices, self-control issues) better than discounted utility theory (for example quasi-hyperbolic discounting, habit formation)
how behavioral models of people's social preferences can match some observed behavior (for example charitable giving, voluntary adherence to social distancing at high personal cost) better than the standard assumption of pure self-interest (for example inequality aversion, reciprocity, social norms)

Skills

The student can

create and analyze empirical evidence, often from experiments and games, for behavior that does not adhere to "economic rationality"
model behavioral preferences and decision processes to analyze economic decision making
critically assess the limitations of behavioral economics, for example excessive paternalism or the lack of a clear welfare criterion

General competence

The student is more able to

use English as the professional language of Economics
understand Economics as a science, and its strengths and weaknesses
understand and apply economic methods, such as analytic modelling and economic experiments

Teaching and learning methods

Erik Friis Fæhn

Course requirements

For å kunne framstille seg til eksamen må studenten ha følgende godkjente arbeidskrav:

Arbeidskrav 1: Studentene skal i gruppe på to studenter skrive en semesteroppgave.

Arbeidskravet må være gjennomført og godkjent innen fastlagt frist for at studenten skal kunne framstille seg til eksamen. Dersom arbeidskravet ikke blir godkjent, gis det anledning til å kunne levere en forbedret versjon én gang innen angitt frist.

Assessment

Eksamen i emnet er en skoleeksamen på 4 timer.

Permitted exam materials and equipment

Tillatte hjelpemidler er:

Kalkulator (se programplan for regler som gjelder bruk av kalkulator)

Grading scale

Gradert skala A - F

Examiners

Behavioral economics uses empirical insights from psychology and other fields (such as sociology or neuroscience) in economic analysis. Conventionally, economics assumes that people are "economically rational": they make logically consistent choices in their best self-interest. Of course, sometimes people don't behave that way. Behavioral economics broadens the reach of economic analysis to situations in which people unselfishly contribute to the common good (like giving to the Red Cross), regret a choice (such as eating a candy bar instead of an apple), or make errors in judgement (for example, assign too much weight to highly unlikely events such as a lightning strike). Economic policies can look very different when people exhibit these kinds of behavior.

Language of instruction is English.