Industrial Organization

The objective of the course is to give the students a good understanding of market structures, firms' behavior, and welfare consequences. The course introduces more realistic models of firms and markets than used on the introductory courses and gives the students theoretical and empirical knowledge regarding the consequences of oligopoly, product differentiation, cooperation, cartels, entry and exit and strategic behavior. The starting point for the analysis is the existence of market power, and frictions such as information asymmetries, transaction costs, and entry barriers. The course discusses how markets are organized and how firms interact given these kinds of frictions.