Instructor:  Patrick McCarthy

Course Description:
In economics and business, network industries have become increasingly important. Essentially, networks comprise a set of physical or electronic linkages. Although including traditional sectors as highway, air, and rail and civil infrastructure systems such as electricity, oil and gas pipelines, network industries also include service and information related sectors as payment clearance systems, e-mail groups, ATMs, and the internet. Common to all networks, and oftentimes posing significant problems, are externalities, complementarities, economies of scale and scope, compatibility, and standards. This course will examine alternative network architectures (e.g. simple ring networks, two star networks connected by a trunk line), explore how differences in a network's economic characteristics have different market structure implications and, accordingly, lead to alternative public policy stances. Inherent in this course will discussions related to imperfect competition, vertical (dis)integration, congestion and expected demand effects, pricing, the economics of standardization, antitrust, and the essential facilities doctrine. The course will include numerous case studies drawn primarily but not exclusively from communication and information sectors in the economy.