Industrial Organization

(4 Credits)

Industrial Organization is a branch of applied microeconomics that studies a wide range of issues including market competition, firms' strategic behaviors, effects of firms' decisions on market outcomes (like prices, quantities, the type of products offered, location, innovation and social welfare) and their feedback effects on market structure, anti-competitive practices and regulatory interventions. In particular, Industrial Organization is concerned with the way firms compete with each other, with the way firms acquire and maintain market power, with the way public policies are used to address undesirable implications of market power. This course introduces the students to a range of issues in the field of Industrial Organization with the goal to understand different forms of market structures, of firms' strategic decisions and of regulatory and competition policies. The course combines theoretical concepts and basic models with some noteworthy real-world applications; it also briefly considers some competition laws and regulatory policies. It builds on concepts and methodologies from microeconomics and game theory.