Facoltà di Economia

Aggiornato A.A. 2017-2018

Learning outcomes and syllabus

The module aims at illustrating how to use economic theory to study how markets works, and how managers, policy makers or individual workers or consumers should take market decisions.

The module places great emphasis on theoretical ideas and tools derived from industrial organization, transaction cost theory, game theory, contract theory, and behavioural economics. The module makes an extensive use of real-world business examples to illustrate how to use economic theory in the analysis of markets and in business decision-making. Also, to illustrate important economic concepts, the module uses graphs and calculations based on actual markets and real data.

The main topics covered during the module are:

• consumer choice and empirical methods for demand analysis; production and costs
• firm organization and market structure; competitive firms and markets; monopoly and monopoly pricing; oligopoly and monopolistic competition
• game theory and business strategy; strategies over time
• managerial decision making under uncertainty and asymmetric information

Readings

The module is based on the following textbook:

• Perloff, J. M. and J. A. Brander, 2014. Managerial economics and strategy. Pearson.

Lecture slides will be posted on the course website after the relevant lecture.

Assessment method

The exam is a single three-hour unseen examination on the two parts "Industrial Organization" and "Public Policy". The overall mark will be the average  of the mark in the two parts. If the student fails, or chooses to reject the mark awarded, then he/she must resit the entire exam. At the discretion of the lecturer, assessed exercises done in class may contribute to the final mark awarded for each part.

For all students, it is not possible to retake the exam in a different appello of the same sessione.

Aggiornato A.A. 2016-2017

Learning outcomes

The module aims at illustrating how to use economic theory to study how markets works, and how managers, policy makers or individual workers or consumers should take market decisions.
The module places great emphasis on theoretical ideas and tools derived from industrial organization, transaction cost theory, game theory, contract theory, and behavioural economics. The module makes an extensive use of real-world business examples to illustrate how to use economic theory in the analysis of markets and in business decision-making. Also, to illustrate important economic concepts, the module uses graphs and calculations based on actual markets and real data.

The main topics covered during the module are:

• consumer choice and empirical methods for demand analysis; production and costs
• firm organization and market structure; competitive firms and markets; monopoly and monopoly pricing; oligopoly and monopolistic competition
• game theory and business strategy; strategies over time
• managerial decision making under uncertainty and asymmetric information
• business issues: government activity and multinational activity

 

Readings and texbook

The module is based on the following textbook:

• Perloff, J. M. and J. A. Brander, 2014. Managerial economics and strategy. Pearson.

Lecture slides will be posted on the course website after the relevant lecture.

 

Syllabus

• Chap. 1
• Chap. 3 (Sect. 3.1 only)
• Chaps. 4-12
• Chap. 13 (excl. Sect. 13.6)
• Chaps. 14-15

 

Assessment

The module is part of the "Industrial Organization and Public Policy" 12 credit module for "Business & Economics" students. The exam is a single three-hour unseen examination, together with the Public Policy part. The overall mark will be the average of the mark in the two parts. If the student fails, or chooses to reject the mark awarded, then he/she must resit the entire exam. At the discretion of the lecturers, assessed exercises done in class may contribute to the final mark awarded for each part.

For all students, it is not possible to retake the exam in a different appello of the same sessione.