About the Course
The Economics Department of the University of Crete is organizing a short course on “Game Theory and IO Methods with Applications to Food Industry” under the auspices of the FOODIMA project (EU Sixth Framework Research Programme: Analysis of the Food Industry: Development of Analytical Tools and Methods).
The short course will be held at the University Campus in Rethymno, Crete from August 2-August 9, 2009.
Professors Konstantinos Giannakas (University of Nebraska),
Chrysovalantou Milliou (Athens University of Economics and Business) and
Emmanuel Petrakis (University of Crete) will be teaching the short course.
Course Objectives
The broader objective of the short course is to provide advanced training for young researchers from all over Europe on state of the art game theoretical models and IO to analyze existing market structures with an emphasis on the Food Industry. This specialized course can be very helpful for graduate students employing the above tools in their thesis as well as researchers in general.
Up to 15 participants will be accepted in the short course.
Course Description
The course will focus on market organization and strategies as they relate to the agri-food system. Topics covered include oligopolies and monopolistic competition, mergers and acquisitions, innovation activity and property rights, product differentiation, quality signaling, and the role of government intervention in imperfect markets
Justification
Changes in consumer preferences, technological progress, reduced government support, and global competition have resulted in aggressive attempts by food companies to pursue innovation and product differentiation strategies. These strategies have resulted in specialized processor needs for agricultural products and a changing structure of the agri-food marketing system.
