Topics in Industrial Organization - JEB136

• Title: Topics in Industrial Organization
• Guaranteed by: Institute of Economic Studies (23-IES)
• Faculty: Faculty of Social Sciences
• Actual: from 2021 to 2025
• Semester: winter
• E-Credits: 3
• Examination process: winter s.:
• Hours per week, examination: winter s.:2/0, Ex [HT]
• Capacity: 97 / unknown (97)
• Min. number of students: unlimited
• 4EU+: no
• Virtual mobility / capacity: no
• State of the course: taught
• Language: English
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan; enabled for web enrollment; priority enrollment if the course is part of the study plan
• Guarantor: PhDr. Jiří Schwarz, Ph.D.
• Teacher(s): PhDr. Jiří Schwarz, Ph.D.
• Class: Courses for incoming students
• Pre-requisite : {Group of prerequisites can be completed either by JEB004 or JEM163}

Annotation

This course provides perspectives of top executives of important Czech firms on industrial organization. Every lecture, given by a different top executive, focuses on one specific industry and its market structure, pricing, regulation, and factors influencing market equilibrium. The course covers major industries such as real estate, energy industry, insurance, central banking, telecommunications, digital services, automotive, higher education, consumer electronics, or health care.

Last update: Schwarz Jiří, PhDr., Ph.D. (15.09.2025)

Aim of the course

The goal of this course is to have top executives of important Czech firms from various industries describe industry characteristics and market structure in which their firm operates. Lecturers will prepare their lectures in line with a given outline - it won’t be a "chat with a celebrity". It is expected that students already possess the needed theoretical background in microeconomics. Lecturers will only deal with the specifics of "their" industries.

The course requirements are: passing midterm and final test, reading one assigned article each week related to the industry dealt with during the corresponding lecture and critically summarizing it in reader’s diary.

Last update: Schwarz Jiří, PhDr., Ph.D. (15.09.2025)

Literature

Readings will be listed in Moodle

Last update: Schwarz Jiří, PhDr., Ph.D. (15.09.2025)

Teaching methods

Use of Generative AI

Students are allowed to use generative AI tools in this course if and only if they are used correctly, ethically, and critically. In particular:

• ✅ You may use AI for inspiration, brainstorming, grammar checking, structuring, or exploring ideas. But always think critically about the output.
• ✅ Any use of AI must be declared (e.g. in a footnote or short note at the beginning of your work).
• ❌ Do not submit AI-generated text as your own without significant modification, your own contribution, and proper citation of original sources. Doing so is considered plagiarism.
• ❌ If AI tools are explicitly prohibited for a specific assignment or exam, you must follow that instruction.
• ⚠️ Violations may lead to disciplinary action under university rules.

For full details on the IES’s guidelines, see “AI tools when studying at IES” at the IES Guides & Manuals page.

Last update: Schwarz Jiří, PhDr., Ph.D. (26.09.2025)

Requirements to the exam

Read one article each week & summarize critically in a reader's diary ... 20%
Midterm assignment ... 20%
Final assignment ... 20%
Activity during lectures ... 40%

Last update: Schwarz Jiří, PhDr., Ph.D. (12.10.2022)

Syllabus

Market structure of an industry

• Type of structure (monopoly (natural versus administrative), dominant firm, cooperative/non-cooperative oligopoly, monopolistic competition, perfect competition)
• Barriers to entry into the industry
• Market share and market power
• Demand structure of the industry

Pricing

• Non-cooperative strategic decision making (predatory pricing, limit pricing, …)
• Cooperative strategic decision making (collusion)
• Price discrimination
• Price development and price forecast

Market equilibrium

• Information and information asymmetry
• Supply chain
• Advertisement, marketing
• Patent policy, trade marks, specificities of goods
• Incentives for innovations, technological progress (R&D)

Regulation

• National, EU and international regulation policy
• Antitrust legislation and its application in the industry
• Regulation of international trade (tariffs, subsidies, quotas, …)

Questions and discussion

The company within the industry

• Ownership and corporate governance
• Mergers & Acquisitions
• Cost curves, economies of scale
• Hierarchy of the company’s goals

 

Last update: Schwarz Jiří, PhDr., Ph.D. (15.09.2025)