Business sciences

The present course aims at introducing the students to the study of the economics of imperfect competition. The course’s perspective will be positive as well as normative. On the positive side, the analysis will consider the strategies firms may adopt to gain and maintain market power, as well as evaluate the implication of market power for social welfare. On the normative side, the course will focus on public intervention in the field of competition policy. Having taken the course, the students are expected to know elementary game theory and be able to frame simple situations in terms of strategic interaction. They are expected to be good at solving simple numerical exercises. They will also know norms and tools of competition policy and will be able to apply this knowledge to the analysis of real situations.