Industrial Organization - Period 4

Many markets of interest are dominated by a few firms. Microsoft, Google, Apple, Intel, Airbus and Vodafone are examples of firms with significant market dominance. These firms not only choose their prices, but also the quality and the design of their products. They buy other firms and perhaps engage in illegal practices such as collusion and abuse of dominance. These choices have far-reaching effects on the markets in which they operate as well as throughout the economy. This course presents an approach ?based on strategic decision making? for understanding the functioning of such markets. This course is designed to give students an overview of the theory of Industrial Organization, to provide students with insights in the organization of markets, and to give an overview of the main models and tools used for analysis of imperfectly competitive markets. In addition, this course studies public policy aimed at industries where the competitive forces fail to deliver efficient outcomes. In particular, the course focuses on sources of market failure such as economies of scale, barriers to entry, collusion, and abuse of dominant position. After introducing the basic notions of market failure and market structure the course concentrates on public policies to alleviate possible negative effects on consumer welfare. The course covers key antitrust issues such as abuse of dominance, collusion, merger analysis, entry deterrence and predation as well as regulation of natural monopoly, regulation under asymmetric information, and public choice aspects of regulation. Empirical approaches to measuring market power and estimating structural relationships will also be discussed.

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU Amsterdam) awards credits based on the ECTS system. Contact hours listed under a course description may vary due to the combination of lecture-based and independent work required for each course therefore, CEA's recommended credits are based on the ECTS credits assigned by VU Amsterdam. 1 ECTS equals 28 contact hours assigned by VU Amsterdam.