040051 UK Competition Policy (BA) (2017W)

In the words of the European Commission: "Competition puts businesses under constant pressure to offer the best possible range of goods at the best possible prices, because if they don't, consumers have the choice to buy elsewhere. In a free market, business should be a competitive game with consumers as the beneficiaries. Sometimes companies try to limit competition. To preserve well-functioning product markets, authorities like the Commission must prevent or correct anti-competitive behaviour. [...] Competition policy is about applying rules to make sure businesses and companies compete fairly with each other. This encourages enterprise and efficiency, creates a wider choice for consumers and helps reduce prices and improve quality."
(See http://ec.europa.eu/competition/consumers/what_en.html and http://ec.europa.eu/competition/consumers/why_en.html.)

Since competition policy is becoming more and more important, there is higher demand for economists with knowledge of competition policy and industrial organization, with employment opportunities in government agencies (ministry of economic affairs, competition authority like BWB in Austria) or in consulting firms. The skill to talk intelligently about business practices and why they are good or bad for the firms and/or for society is becoming more valuable.

The main purpose of this course is to introduce the economics and the main concepts of competition policy (while it deals with the important legal side of competition policy only to a very limited extent).

Specific Contents of this Course:
1. Introduction to competition policy
2. Brief repetition of basic market models and basic concepts of game theory
3. Horizontal agreements, cartels and collusion
4. Vertical restraints (restrictions in agreements between firms at different levels of the production and distribution chain)
5. Merger guidelines: horizontal, vertical and conglomerate mergers
6. Abuse of a dominant position (where a bigger company tries to make a competing firm leave the market)