产业组织课程概要.pdf

Industrial Organization The central research question in industrial organization is: “How can the behavior and performance of firms and markets be expplained and ppredicted with observable data?” IO economists apppplyy microeconomic theoryy and econometrics to study firms and markets – theoretical and empirical work are both important There are several implications for business strategy and publicpublic policypolicy – publicpublic policypolicy isis oftenoften thethe focusfocus ofof thethe analysis Industrial Organization • The main goal in industrial organization is to understand howhow firmsfirms strategicallystrategically interactinteract inin wellwell-defineddefined marketsmarkets • Ideally, we want to be able to use observable variables to predictpredict firmfirm behaviorbehavior, profitsprofits, andand socialsocial welfarewelfare atat thethe level of particular markets • IOIO isis particularlyparticularly concernedconcerned withwith howhow governmentgovernment intervention influences firm behavior and market performance • Antitrust policy, regulatory policies, patent policies, etc., are all important Main Approaches • The typical approach in theoretical IO is to use a formal gamegame theoretictheoretic modelmodel withwith profitprofit maximizingmaximizing firmsfirms • The firm as a strategic agent is the unit of analysis; the implicationsimplications forfor marketmarket performanceperformance areare criticalcritical outcomesoutcomes • IO approaches often downplay differences in resources and capabilitiescapabilities atat thethe firmfirm levellevel andand focusfocus onon thethe implicationsimplications of “pure” strategic interaction • This is in contrast to the strategygy literature,, where much of the focus is on how differences in resources and capabilities influence strategic choices