Public Policy and Business Strategy

Catalog description

In most industries firms are either subject to direct regulation or under the eye of a competition policy watchdog Agreements with competitors mergers and acquisitions pricing distribution practices these and many other dimensions of firm strategy are potentially subject to the scrutiny of government authorities In addition to competition policy the governments role is also apparent in state aid eg subsidies to firms direct intervention inational champions eg golden shares and industrial policy eg government favoritism for a particular technology standard This course provides an introduction to the role and impact of public policy on market competition It takes the perspective of a firms manager and asks the twin questions a to what extent does government intervention limit a firms strategy and b how can firm strategy take advantage of government intervention The course will be based on case studies Several of these case studies correspond to actual litigation cases in the US and Europe After each case there will also be a brief lecture pointing to some general concepts One peculiar characteristic of most of the cases discussed in class is that there are two clearly distinguished and to some extent opposed approaches this is obviously true for litigation cases but not exclusively Grading will consists exclusively of class participation Specifically you will be asked to argue in favor or against a particular position in each of the cases discussed in class