Formation/Cours

This course is intended to students with some background in microeconomics. The central topic of the course is the management of competition by the State. Starting from some basic case studies, the course introduces the economic foundation of State intervention to either enhance competition or to curb it. By the end of the course, it is expected that the students will be able to read through public intervention for competition and see its impact on business and firm management. Managing is a global activity and unfortunately or not, the government plays a huge role in the firms’ environment, so one must be able to read its intentions correctly and this course intends to set the foundations to do so.

The course starts by reviewing the basics of standard competition through the regulation of cab licenses. Then it turns to the polar case of a monopolistic structure. It is asked if this structure is perennial of given industries. Then structures in between are analyzed, such as oligopolistic market. In this case, cooperation is potentially desired by the firms, but the State does not often share this view. We then have a look at the laws keeping competition alive. The last three topics deal with strategic behaviors of the firms. The first one is concerned with the industry structure when cartels are not allowed. Do firms have incentives to merge? Why do State end up controlling this aspect as well? Controlling the vertical structure of an industry may have some advantages. Finally, we can wonder why actions will be taken by firms to limit entry in a market and how they can do that