Aims and Fit of Module

This module covers the discipline of industrial organisation, one of the key pillars in the field of economics. It looks at consumers, firms and government; market structures, and their interactions with each other. This module looks at the role of competition and collusion on market price and output; and subsequently on social welfare. Although there is a heavy theoretical focus in this module, real-life examples and cases will be presented, especially with respect to anti-trust regulation.

This module builds on previous compulsory intermediate microeconomics modules (ECO217 and ECO223) which cover basic concepts of monopoly, various forms of oligopoly and perfect competition. This module expands on this to look at price discrimination, product differentiation, vertical structures, and different ways collusion could occur in practice.

Learning outcomes

Students completing the module successfully should be able to:
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A Demonstrate a thorough understanding of the core concepts and models in industrial organisation.
B Critically evaluate the usefulness and limitations of theoretical models and different schools of thought and be able to critically evaluate them, especially with respect to economic policy.
C Apply economic intuition to a range of real and hypothetical scenarios within the scope of industrial organisation.

Method of teaching and learning

This module will be delivered via a combination of lectures and tutorials. Lectures are designed to cover the models, concepts and tools for each topic. Tutorials are intended to be more hands-on, working on exercises, critically analysing the models in-depth and discussing their implications.