Economic and Legal Aspects of Competition Policy B
Module Code: ECU44072/ECU44074
Module Name: Economic and Legal Aspects of Competition Policy B
- ECTS weighting: 10/5
- Semester/term taught: Semester 2 (Hilary Term)
- Contact Hours: 11 hours of lectures and approximately 5 hours of tutorials
- Module Personnel: Economics - Professor Francis O'Toole
Module Learning Aims
This module (and its pre-requisite ECU44071) aims to:
- provide those with an intermediate level of economics with the required foundation in competition law and antitrust economics (economics of competition policy) required to appreciate the interactions between economics and law underlying coherent competition policy;
- explain and interpret economic (and legal) phenomena in the specific area of competition policy using the appropriate economic (and legal) tools and terminology;
- evaluate real world competition policy issues through the medium of generic economic (and legal) concepts; and,
- apply economic and legal reasoning, and critical evaluation of same, in clear and concise English.
Module Learning Outcomes
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to:
- apply economic and legal tools to competition policy and regulatory policy issues;
- formulate, address and critically evaluate competition policy issues using the language and approach of competition economics;
- articulate economic reasoning and results to others in clear and concise English.
Module Content
The economics part of this module (and its pre-requisite ECU44071) provides students with a broad overview and an in-depth analysis of the economics of competition policy.
Economic topics discussed during Hilary Term are likely to include:
- Predation (predatory pricing and cost-based tests);
- Vertical relations (resale price maintenance and exclusivity agreements); and,
- Tying, bundling and price discrimination.
Recommended Reading List
There is no core economics textbook. However, access to Martin (2010) and some of the other following books (or close substitutes) is recommended.
- S. Bishop and M. Walker, Economics of EC Competition Law: Concepts, Application and Measurement, 3rd Edition, Sweet & Maxwell, 2010.
- Chiara Fumagalli, Massimo Motta and Claudio Calcagno, Exclusionary Practices: The Economics of Monopolisation and Abuse of Dominance, Cambridge University Press, 2018.
- John Kwoka and Lawrence White, The Antitrust Revolution: Economics, Competition and Policy, 7th Edition (or earlier editions of same), Oxford University Press, 2018.
- S. Martin, Industrial Organization in Context, Oxford University Press, 2010.
Module Pre-Requisite
EC2110 and EC2111 (Intermediate Economics) and ECU44071 (Economic and Legal Aspects of Competition Policy A, 10 ECTS).
Module Assessment
It is envisaged that a written assignment due by the middle of Hilary Term will account for 50% of the overall grade and that an exam (separate exams for ECU44072 and ECU44074) at the end of Hilary Term will account for the remaining 50%.
Module Website
Blackboard