ECON 106I
Organization of Firms
Description: Lecture, three hours. Enforced requisites: courses 11, 101. Enforced corequisite: course 106IL. Enrollment priority to Business Economics majors. Role of firms in traditional economic theory and modern developments in theory of firms. Topics include relationship between employer and employee, principal-agent models and moral hazard, formal versus relational contracts, successful firms as coherent systems of mutually supporting parts, property rights and asset ownership, boundaries of firms, employment versus independent contracting, internal organization of firms, role and levels of firm hierarchy. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
I took his Organizations course and he is a entertaining lecturer, but he will not teach you anything for the exams. Everyone is freaked out before the exam and afterward too. He doesn't show up on the final day in fear of being shot for his evil exams I guess. His grader gives bad grades in hopes to keep up the reputation of a stupid Pepperdine professor. I used to go to office hours and study a lot (even made a notebook of reading notes) but didn't help. You have to "just" answer the 200+ (not kidding) questions listed in the beginning of the coursepacket and memorize each answer before the test. I think he has too much benefit of the doubt teaching at UCLA--a little too conveniently set income for poor performance.
I took his Organizations course and he is a entertaining lecturer, but he will not teach you anything for the exams. Everyone is freaked out before the exam and afterward too. He doesn't show up on the final day in fear of being shot for his evil exams I guess. His grader gives bad grades in hopes to keep up the reputation of a stupid Pepperdine professor. I used to go to office hours and study a lot (even made a notebook of reading notes) but didn't help. You have to "just" answer the 200+ (not kidding) questions listed in the beginning of the coursepacket and memorize each answer before the test. I think he has too much benefit of the doubt teaching at UCLA--a little too conveniently set income for poor performance.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2022 - This class has definitely been one of the most interesting econ classes I've taken so far at UCLA, and I learned a lot from it. I thought there was a good balance between the theoretical models as well as their applications, which was very nice, especially through the case studies with guest speakers. Your grade is based off of 3 homework assignments, 3 of 6 case study assignments, participation in the case studies, and the final (which is worth 50%). Content wise, there was definitely a lot of theoretical models that were covered early on within the first 5-6 weeks. Make sure to know those concepts really well and review them in discussion (go to Jake's discussions). I did think that Moritz wasn't a great lecturer and he wasn't always clear when explaining some models in lecture; I was fairly confused about that material until Week 7 or so. But going to discussions, solving questions from past finals, and doing the homework should clear that up. The homework assignments are very challenging, but he did emphasize that the exams would be much easier. The case studies were also fairly interesting and were pretty relevant to the lecture material, which was great. Some of the speakers were pretty awesome (especially once we switched back to in-person), but others weren't the best. The final wasn't the easiest (in my opinion, some of his past finals were way easier), but they were definitely doable with a little bit of reasoning and thought. The case study question on the final is practically a free 50 points out of 100. Make sure to repeatedly practice all the past finals, as they provide great practice for the exam. All in all , I do think this class was very well structured and you do get to learn a lot of interesting content in formal and applied setting, while being sufficiently challenged. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone interested in the topic.
Winter 2022 - This class has definitely been one of the most interesting econ classes I've taken so far at UCLA, and I learned a lot from it. I thought there was a good balance between the theoretical models as well as their applications, which was very nice, especially through the case studies with guest speakers. Your grade is based off of 3 homework assignments, 3 of 6 case study assignments, participation in the case studies, and the final (which is worth 50%). Content wise, there was definitely a lot of theoretical models that were covered early on within the first 5-6 weeks. Make sure to know those concepts really well and review them in discussion (go to Jake's discussions). I did think that Moritz wasn't a great lecturer and he wasn't always clear when explaining some models in lecture; I was fairly confused about that material until Week 7 or so. But going to discussions, solving questions from past finals, and doing the homework should clear that up. The homework assignments are very challenging, but he did emphasize that the exams would be much easier. The case studies were also fairly interesting and were pretty relevant to the lecture material, which was great. Some of the speakers were pretty awesome (especially once we switched back to in-person), but others weren't the best. The final wasn't the easiest (in my opinion, some of his past finals were way easier), but they were definitely doable with a little bit of reasoning and thought. The case study question on the final is practically a free 50 points out of 100. Make sure to repeatedly practice all the past finals, as they provide great practice for the exam. All in all , I do think this class was very well structured and you do get to learn a lot of interesting content in formal and applied setting, while being sufficiently challenged. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone interested in the topic.
Most Helpful Review
This review is for 106M, even though 106I is selected. There was no 106M option. The material is fascinating, very useful and very applicable. The major problem with the course lies with Tornell's incredibly unorganized lectures and his lack of availability. He will post answers to homework problems and practice problems for exams but will NOT post solutions to many of them, simply stating "see class notes for solution." The problem is there's no way to understand if you comprehend the material or not since all you can do is go back to your class notes, which are probably not even that good since the man's lectures are insanely unorganized. He also has no office hours. At all. As a graduating senior, I've never had a professor that had no office hours. I'm not even sure if this is allowed by university policy. If you can take 106M with anyone else, do it. If it's with Tornell...think twice beforehand.
This review is for 106M, even though 106I is selected. There was no 106M option. The material is fascinating, very useful and very applicable. The major problem with the course lies with Tornell's incredibly unorganized lectures and his lack of availability. He will post answers to homework problems and practice problems for exams but will NOT post solutions to many of them, simply stating "see class notes for solution." The problem is there's no way to understand if you comprehend the material or not since all you can do is go back to your class notes, which are probably not even that good since the man's lectures are insanely unorganized. He also has no office hours. At all. As a graduating senior, I've never had a professor that had no office hours. I'm not even sure if this is allowed by university policy. If you can take 106M with anyone else, do it. If it's with Tornell...think twice beforehand.
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