This course counts toward the following majors: Decision Sciences.

Provides frameworks for reasoning about decisions in uncertain environments. Case studies and experiments are used to motivate the importance of probabilistic reasoning to avoid the systematic biases that cloud managers' decision making. Formal probabilistic tools are introduced and their relevance to modern business issues is conveyed via cases, exercises, and class experiments. Some of the applications include: inventory management with uncertain demand, principal-agent models, herd behavior, selection bias, rare events, real options and risk. The course is self-contained, and should be of value to all students, including those with prior exposure to formal probability models.

Pricing Strategies (MECN-446-0)

This course counts toward the following majors: Analytical Consulting, Decision Sciences, Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Managerial Economics.

This course provides students with a comprehensive framework for formulating and implementing pricing strategies. Techniques that take account of the often imprecise and uncertain information to which management has access are useded to analyze the influence of costs, demand and competition on the pricing decision. Also discussed are research methods that can complement managerial judgment and the importance of maintaining consistency with other elements of the marketing mix. Special attention is devoted to the design of pricing schemes that segment the market, such as peak-load pricing, product bundling and nonlinear pricing. The course also studies vertical pricing problems (transfer pricing, pricing and distribution), legal constraints on pricing and industrial pricing (bidding). Actual pricing schemes in various industries and selected cases are used for illustrative and analytical purposes. Prerequisites: MECN-430, MKTG-430.