Competition Policy

This course presents an economic analysis of monopoly power and efforts to limit monopoly power through competition policy. The course will focus on helping students understand the theoretical rationale for competition policy and on providing students with an understanding of the practice of competition policy by examining recent prominent public and private antitrust actions. The first part of the course is devoted to an economic analysis of the welfare implications of monopoly power. The second part provides an overview of the legal and institutional framework of competition policy enforcement with particular emphasis on how the framework differs between the US and the EU and other countries. The final part of the course will address three types of anticompetitive conduct that represent the bulk of competition policy enforcement: collusion, exclusive contracting, and horizontal and vertical mergers. This section will present detailed studies of recent antitrust actions in the US including the US case against Microsoft and the Whole Foods and Wild Oats merger.