Industrial Organisation is concerned with the behavior of firms on markets with imperfect competition. The first part of the course looks at how market conditions determine the characteristics of the products available on the market ( price, output levels, quality). Specific attention is played to how firms can actively change the market structure through mergers and acquisitions or other modes of coordination (such as implicit or explicit collusion), as well as through strategies aimed at deterring entry or securing a dominant market position. In each scenario, the welfare consequences with regard to the producers and consumers on the market are discussed, in order to reflect on the potential effects of policy interventions on behalf of a regulator, as well as the optimal instruments for such interventions.

In the second half of the lecture students will read and present papers related to industries with specific characteristics (example, markets characterized by asymmetric information) or to regulation and competition policy decisions. 

Upon graduating this course, students should be able to use the economic reasoning elaborated in models of industrial organisation to predict how firm behavior responds to changes in the competitive environment. Furthermore, they should be aware of the potential sources of market failure on markets with imperfect competition, as well as the policy instruments available to regulators monitoring such markets.

Attendance is compulsory. Students are required to attend all of the total amount of class contact hours. Given that it is a blended mode corse, for the online sessions specific problem set/assignments will be required to be submitted. 

Lectures, books, articles to be read and discussed online, homework assignments

Homework assignments (20%)

Presentations  (20%)

Final exam (60%)

According to the curriculum.

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Good knowledge in Microeconomics (Applied Microeconomics and Advanced Microeconomics)

daniela.rroshi@wu.ac.at