The denomination used for the course is “Industrial Organisation” but another appropriate term would be something like “economics of imperfect competition”; the effort is to place the perfect competition model in the economic reality removing the assumptions of perfect information and free entry, giving the right importance to factors such as transaction costs, public policies, etc.
Under perfect competition a firm is price taker, that is it has no market power. In the reality almost all the firms detain market power and such a power increases depending on the structure of the industry the firm belongs to.
Industrial organisation is concerned with the working of markets and industries, in particular the way firms compete with each others, the way they acquire and maintain market power.
From the methodological point of view two main approaches, used to analyse industries, must be considered: the (SCP) structure, conduct, performance paradigm and the microeconomics models. The former approach is more descriptive and search to give a quite synthetic picture of the market structure, firms conduct, industry, market and firm performance. The second utilize microeconomics model and game theory n order to explain the firms strategies and market interaction.
Topics covered
During this course, we will analyze in particular:
- central questions of industrial organisation
- efficiency (static and dynamic)
- basic microeconomics review
- firms performance
- monopoly, natural monopoly, leading firm and regulation;
- perfect competition, almost perfect competition, monopolistic competition;
- oligopoly competition: the Bertrand model and the Cournot model;
- collusion and anti- trust policy;
- market structure and market power;
- price discrimination;
- vertical integrations and relations;
- product differentiation;
- advertising;
- research and development;
- networks and standards;

Objective
- Analysis of industry and market structure for the best comprehension of firms behaviour
- Analysis of forms strategies (such as price competition, long term agreements, R&D policies, etc.)
- Realization of industrial analysis by means of different tools such as microeconomics modelling and structure, behaviour, performance case studies conduction.