Industrial Economics; Competition, Strategy and Policy
Module Code: EC3071
Module Title: Industrial Economics; Competition, Strategy and Policy
- ECTS Weighting: 10
- Semester/Term Taught: Michaelmas + Hilary Term
- Contact Hours: 44 hours of lectures and 10 hours of tutorials
- Module Personnel: Lecturer - Professor Francis O'Toole / Lecturer - Ms Orla Lane
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module, you will be able to:
- analyse interactions between firms using game theory concepts
- measure how consumer welfare changes in response to different behaviours of firms in the market
- identify how cooperation between firms can help and how it can hurt final consumers
- analyse how dominant firms use different business techniques to achieve and maintain dominance in the market
- explain the goals of competition policy and the techniques used by competition authorities to assess deviations from legitimate competitive behaviour
- describe the institutional background to competition policy and regulation in Ireland and Europe
- use economic tools and examples of relevant cases to form and support arguments and opinions
Module Learning Aims
The module introduces and provides an overview of the content of modern industrial economics, covering theory, empirical research and competition policy analysis. The module is geared towards junior sophister students in economics and business who are interested in advancing their knowledge of economic analysis, both theoretical and empirical. It is an optional module.
The module introduces and provides an overview of the content of modern industrial economics, covering theory, empirical research and competition policy analysis. The module is geared towards junior sophister students in economics and business who are interested in advancing their knowledge of economic analysis, both theoretical and empirical. It is an optional module.
Module Content
Markets with a small number of interdependent sellers provide the setting for Industrial Economics: Competition, Strategy and Policy. This module stresses the importance of the role of game theory in the analysis of such markets and provides a forum for students to move beyond a two-dimensional (price and quantity) evaluation of market performance. The following topics are covered: welfare economics and consumer surplus; competition, monopoly, contestability and barriers to entry; oligopoly and non-co-operative game theory: Cournot, Bertrand and Stackelberg; horizontal and vertical agreements; dominant firms and limit pricing; monopolistic competition, product differentiation and advertising; price discrimination; predation; research and development; competition policy and state aid.
Recommended Reading List
- Carlton, D and J. Perloff, Modern Industrial Organization, Pearson: Addison Wesley, 4th edition, 2005
- Andreosso, B. and Jacobson, D. Industrial Economics and Organization: A European Perspective, McGraw-Hill Education, 2nd edition, 2005. (Texts to be confirmed.)
Module Pre Requisite
EC2010
Assessment Details
The module is assessed through a project in the first module (worth 15% of the grade), a project during the second module (worth 15% of the grade) and a final exam (worth 70% of the grade).
Module Website
Blackboard