NMAK11020U Microeconomics 3 – Industrial Organization (MikØk3)

Knowledge in:

After having successfully completed the course a student will be familiar with a number of basic topics in industrial organization theory, including: monopoly; price discrimination; short run price competition and Cournot oligopoly; dynamic price competition, tacit collusion and cartels; empirical tests of oligopoly; product differentiation; vertically related markets.

Skills at:

After having successfully completed the course a students will be able to:

• Describe the main theories of monopoly behavior and of oligopoly competition and to compare them in terms of central features such as prices and welfare.
• Describe the different kinds of price discrimination, the ways in which price discrimination can be implemented, and how price discrimination affects the different economic agents involved.
• Describe the main theories of collusion and to identify factors that hinder and facilitate collusion.
• Solve formal models using tools from mathematical optimization theory and game theory.
• Analyze formal models that are variations of the models and theories covered in the course and to provide economic intuition for the results obtained.
• Read professional journal articles on industrial organization and to use insights from this field when analyzing and thinking about questions where imperfect competition plays a role.

Competences to:

The primary aim of the course is to introduce students to modern industrial organization (building on and adding to the students’ knowledge about industrial organization from Microeconomics 2). A broader aim is that students who take the course will, by working extensively with theoretical models, acquire analytical skills that are transferable to other kinds of intellectual problems.