LEARNING OUTCOMES

Course aims to: Provide Fundamental concepts of Economics, Monopoly & Oligopoly Models, Basic Consumer Theory as well as Game Theory applied to these fields

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

Students will learn the mathematical tools used to understand and critically evaluate the strategic interaction between individuals, firms, and States.

In the second module, these tools will be applied to the study of industrial economics and, in general, to the analysis of strategic interaction between firms. In this way, students will learn to critically evaluate some features of competition policy.

PREREQUISITES

None.

TEACHING METHODS

Standard lectures.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

The course is organized in two modules.

In the first module, we will cover some basic concepts of non-cooperative game theory:

1. Some elementary taxonomy concerning games.

2. Dominant and dominated strategies, Nash equilibrium.

3. Limits and refinements of Nash equilibria.

4. Repeated games.

5. Games and rationality.

All these issues will be studied by making real-world examples and combining theory with exercises and applications.

Building on the game theory tools developed in the first module, in the second module the following topics will be covered:

1. Basic consumer theory;

2. Monopoly pricing;

3. Oligopoly theory;

4. Determinants of market structure;

5. Cartels & collusion;

6. patents;

7. predatory pricing.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Recommended readings for this first module are:

Dixit, A. and B. Nalebuff (2010): The Art of Strategy. W.W. Norton & Co Inc, M.

Osborne, M. and A. Rubinstein (1994): A Course on Game Theory, The MIT Press.

There is not a single book suggested for this module. However, most of the material is based on:

Pepall, Richards, Norman, Industrial Organization: Contemporary Theory and Empirical Applications. fifth edition, Blackwell Publishing, 2013. 

Belleflamme P. and Peitz M. (2015), Industrial Organization. Markets and Strategies, Cambridge University Press.