MBA and Sloan Elective Courses: Political Economy
POLECON 332 Managers and the Legal Environment
To excel, managers and entrepreneurs must know how to operate successfully in the legal environment in which they must conduct business. This course addresses the legal aspects of business agreements and relationships. The course begins with an overview of the different forms of business organizations available, mergers and acquisitions, public and private offerings of securities, and the fiduciary duties of officers, directors and controlling shareholders. The course covers the US court system and the laws of contracts, torts, antitrust and intellectual property. The legal aspects of the employment relationship as they relate to the liability of corporations and managers for the acts of their employees, wrongful termination, discrimination, and sexual harassment will also be covered.
Students who have a JD degree, or will receive a JD degree, from a U.S. university should not take this class. If you cannot attend a class, you must notify instructors before class.
POLECON 347 Intellectual Property and Its Effect on Business
This course explores the impact intellectual property rights have on business decisions. We begin with a general background of intellectual property law including copyright, trademark, patent and trade secret. We will also cover quasi property rights such as database and privacy. Each of these distinct rights will be examined through a case methodology affording students an opportunity to gauge the relative strengths and weaknesses of a particular form of protection. As the value of intellectual property rises, the avenues of economic return increase. We will analyze various methods of maximizing such economic returns. Focus for this course is on the impact both technological innovation and intellectual property law have on business strategies. This is not a class designed to teach students the law of intellectual property. Rather, this course educates business decision makers on the impact intellectual property can have on the bottom line. This course employs a mixed lecture/case discussion format. We will have several sessions with lectures by visiting industry experts.
POLECON 349 The Business World: Moral and Spiritual Inquiry through Literature
This course uses novels and plays as a basis for examining the moral and spiritual aspects of business leadership and of the environment in which business is done. On the one hand literature is used as the basis for examining the character of business people, while on the other hand literature provides illumination of the cultural contexts of values and beliefs within which commercial activities take place in a global economy. The course is organized around the interplay of religious traditions and national identities. Classes are taught in a Socratic, discussion-based style, creating as much of a seminar atmosphere as possible. A two-text method is used, encouraging students to examine their own personal stories with as much care as the stories presented in the literature. This four unit course will be graded on the basis of class participation and a final paper. There will be no exam.
POLECON 364 Antitrust
The principal areas of the federal antitrust field will be considered, including the legal and economic concepts of competition and monopoly, the policy and judicial interpretations of the Sherman Act and Clayton Act, and their applications to business practices and industrial structure. Ethical considerations in the practice of antitrust law will be considered throughout the course.
POLECON 395 Politics and Business in Europe
The policies of the European Union (EU) have a tremendous impact on the activities of global companies. Companies that want access to the EU market of nearly half a billion consumers must comply with EU product standards. Mergers of companies active in the EU require EU approval. For these reasons it is important to understand the politics and policies of the EU. Europe is going through a period of rapid change both at the economic and political level. Markets are being deregulated, and political institutions are constantly being reformed. A single currency has been introduced, and the EU is expanding eastward. Trade disputes have become more prevalent, and transatlantic relations have been strained. This course studies the politics of the EU and its member states, the principal economic and political issues that are currently on the EU's agenda, and their effect on business. The course consists of class discussions, case studies, and a number of guest lectures by European business people and politicians.
The course intends to enhance the students' understanding of European politics and economics and their impact on business. It analyzes a variety of current issues in the EU, such as the implications of market integration and EU enlargement, the competitiveness of EU companies and the functioning of EU labor markets, cultural aspects of European business, the European venture capital market, international trade policy and EU trade relations with the United States, competition policy, the monetary union, and security and defense issues. It also studies the political economics of the member states, focusing on business-government relations. The class is particularly useful for students who want to work for a global company or set up a business in Europe and seek to learn more about the political and economic environment in which they will be operating. Grades will be assigned on the basis of class participation and the presentation of a group project.
POLECON 510 Applied Ethics
This course focuses on the types of ethical decisions managers face and the challenges they encounter after they have decided on an ethical course of action. The main assumption underlying the course is that many ethical lapses arise from implementation failures. It is not enough for managers to address and think through the ethical implications of their decisions; they must also translate their ethical reasoning into action. This requires that they be able to articulate and defend an ethical position as well as implement it. This case-based course will teach students how to develop an ethical voice and how to implement ethical practices in different organizational contexts.
Among the topics addressed in the course are: How do companies ensure that the ethical standards of its leaders and employees are implemented? How can business leaders be made to see the inconsistency between their values and their actions? What structures can companies put into place to encourage ethical action and make it easier for employees to question the ethics of one another's actions? How can business leaders establish a balance between ethics and profitability?
POLECON 520 Values in Business
This course explores how various value propositions affect managerial decisions. Value propositions are inescapably normative. Therefore, the course is concerned not only with what is (e.g., corporate behavior that can be described mostly in terms of economic motivations and consequences) but also with what ought to be (i.e., behavior motivated by broader moral concerns and/or the moral consequences of such behavior). The approaches taken in the course are more bottom-up than top-down. That is, the intention is to allow the normative underpinnings of business decisions to arise more-or-less naturally from concrete business situations rather than to forcefully superimpose abstract moral philosophies onto business situations. This is achieved through a series of cases and exercises that embody elements of utilitarianism, justice, duty, virtue, corporate responsibility, and value-based leadership.
POLECON 547 Intellectual Property and Its Effect on Business
This course explores the impact intellectual property rights have on business decisions. We begin with a general background of intellectual property law including copyright, trademark, patent and trade secret. We will also cover quasi property rights such as database and privacy. Each of these distinct rights will be examined through a case methodology affording students an opportunity to gauge the relative strengths and weaknesses of a particular form of protection. As the value of intellectual property rises, the avenues of economic return increase. We will analyze various methods of maximizing such economic returns. Focus for this course is on the impact both technological innovation and intellectual property law have on business strategies. This is not a class designed to teach students the law of intellectual property. Rather, this course educates business decision makers on the impact intellectual property can have on the bottom line. This course employs a mixed lecture/case discussion format. We will have several sessions with lectures by visiting industry experts.
POLECON 571 The Future of Growth: Developed and Developing World
The course deals with the recent (post war) sustained high growth in the developing world and its likely evolution and impact in the future. How are these kinds of growth rates possible? What accounts for the absence of growth in a part of the developing world? What are the key political ingredients? Attention will be given to the evolving global landscape surrounding this growth. What is the impact of this widening pattern of growth and are there natural brakes that may slow the process down or make it difficult for the non-G20 developing countries and their 1/3 of the world's population to start or sustain the high growth process. The class will attempt to identify and assess the impact of important global trends and challenges. Included in the latter will be governance issues. We will spend a little time on the impact of the 2008-2009 crisis, the transmission channels and lessons learned from the vantage point of developing countries.