Mini-Course on Oligopoly Theory
By Nir Dagan
Universidad del Pais Vasco, Bilbao, February 23-24, 2009.
PDF version
Outline
- 1
 - Monopoly
 - 1.1
 - Simple single product monopoly
 - 1.2
 - Price discrimination
 - 1.2.1
 - Third degree price discrimination: when it is possible to identify consumers, and consumers cannot resell.
 - 1.2.2
 - Discrimination via quality choice and self selection. Consumers are not identified, and resale is possible.
 - 2
 - Bertrand Oligopoly:
	Nash equilibrium in price competition with a single commodity
 - 3
 - Tacit collusion:
	Infinitely repeated price competition and the falk theorem for subgame perfect equilibria.
 - 4
 - Product differentiation
 - 4.1
 - Exogenous substitute products, best response curves and Nash equilibrium.
 - 4.2
 - Spatial competition: the linear city
 - 4.2.1
 - Newspaper stands: location choice when prices are fixed, and the principle of minimum differentiation.
 - 4.2.2
 - Two stage competition: first location, then prices, and the principle of maximum differentiation.
 
Recommended textbooks
- Shy, Oz (1996)
 Industrial Organization: Theory and Applications,
The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
 
- Tirole, Jean (1988)
 The Theory of Industrial Organization,
The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.