Lecture:
The lecture "Industrial Organisation" will be offered in presence this semester.
Thursday, 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., lecture hall M.15.13
Start in the first lecture week: 15.10.2026
and
Monday, 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m., room M.12.25
Start: 19.10.2026
Dozent: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Werner Bönte
Exercise:
Tuesday, 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., room M.13.09 (CIP2)
with Markus Thomanek
Start: 20.10.2026
and
Thursday, 2.00 p.m. - 4.00 p.m., room M.15.13
with Nora König
Start: 22.10.2026
Course description
In reality, free markets characterized by fierce competition and free market entry are the exception rather than the rule. Firms pursue a variety of competitive strategies to achieve dominance and maintain market power. This course uses case studies and industrial economic models to provide a broader, more realistic picture of firm behavior in real markets and to understand the variety of competitive strategies pursued by, for example, Internet companies, electronics firms, pharmaceutical companies, and automobile manufacturers. At the same time, this course examines how antitrust authorities can identify and prevent anticompetitive behavior by firms.
Two main questions explored in this course are:
- How do firms acquire, use, and maintain market power?
- How can antitrust authorities deal with anticompetitive activities by firms that restrict competition at the expense of consumers and/or competitors?
This course addresses competitive strategies of firms in imperfectly competitive markets and the resulting market dynamics. Considered are advanced pricing strategies of firms, strategic interaction of firms in oligopoly markets, market entry, endogenous determinants of industry structure, and strategies of firms with respect to decisions such as product differentiation, vertical integration, advertising, and innovation.
Course format
The course is designed to be interactive. In class, you will play short economic experiments: you make pricing, quantity, or entry decisions yourself, competing against your fellow students. We analyze the results live and compare them with theoretical predictions. This way, you experience strategic interaction from a firm's perspective before we analyze it formally.
Course language
The language of instruction (lectures, exercises) is English. This also applies to the teaching materials and the literature accompanying the lectures and tutorials. The exam can be taken either in English or in German.
