Professor J Sutton, LRB. R519, Professor M Pesendorfer, STC. S878 and Dr P Schiraldi, STC. S680

This course is for MSc Economics and MSc Econometrics and Mathematical Economics. Other graduates on MPA Public and Economic Policy/MPA Public Policy and Management/MPA International Development/MPA European Public and Economic Policy/MPA Public and Social Policy may attend with the permission of the MSc Economics programme Director. This will normally only be granted to students who have taken EC400 (Introductory Course in Mathematics and Statistics) held annually in September and achieved the required standard.

Students should have completed a course in intermediate level microeconomics and EC400 EC400 (Introductory Course in Mathematics and Statistics).

A graduate course in Industrial Organization, which aims to provide students with a working knowledge of current theoretical and empirical methods for industry studies. Applications of these methods are considered in industry case studies.

Topics include: Pre-requisites in Game Theory, An introduction to current developments in Oligopoly Theory. A formal analysis of conduct in concentrated industries (cartel stability, limit pricing, predatory pricing, etc), Demand estimation in homogenous and differentiated product industries, Production function estimation, Empirical techniques for oligopoly models and auction markets, Identification of conduct, Economies of Scale, R&D, Advertising, Vertical restraints. The topics will be discussed with detailed applications for selected industries and considering competition policy questions.

Thirty-five hours of lectures and 20 hours of classes/seminars in the MT and LT.

Two books which provide a basic framework are J Tirole, Theory of Industrial Organization, MIT Press, 1989 and J Sutton, Technology and Market Structure, MIT Press, 1998. A full reading list will be supplied at the beginning of the course.

A three-hour written examination in the ST (50%) and a 6000-word extended essay due at the beginning of the ST (50%).