Course 2026-2027 a.y.

Part I develops the Strategy Beyond Markets toolkit to understand corporate strategies toward regulators, legislators, courts, and public opinion, using cases such as Rosia Montana, crypto regulation, Airbnb, coalition building, gray‑area business models, and influence over regulators.

Part II applies law‑and‑economics to competition policy and sectoral rules, covering the general antitrust framework, cartels, mergers, abuses of dominance, damages and passing‑on, and regulatory topics in digital and electricity markets, with case studies including the Vitamins and Trucks cartels, Asda/Sainsbury, Dow/DuPont, Bayer/Monsanto, Sprint/T‑Mobile, and AT&T/Time Warner. 

On completion, students understand the channels through which firms shape legal outcomes—such as lobbying, coalition building, agenda setting, and strategic litigation—and the mechanisms by which legal instruments alter incentives and competitive dynamics. They are able to interpret and evaluate decisions and cases by recognising the underlying economic reasoning and empirical evidence, and they can articulate how rules affect pricing, innovation, entry, collusion, mergers, and abuses of dominance. 

Students apply the course concepts through assignments and presentations built around real cases and contemporary policy debates, culminating in evidence‑based written work and in‑class discussion. The assessment structure emphasises the practical use of the frameworks taught in class to analyse concrete market and regulatory outcomes. 

• Lectures
• Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
• Individual works / Assignments
• Interaction/Gamification

Teaching combines lectures with case‑based analysis and classroom discussion, as reflected in the weekly schedule of sectoral and antitrust cases and in the emphasis on instructor notes and selected academic articles that accompany the lectures. Sessions are held on campus at Sarfatti 25 as indicated in the schedule. 

Attending students follow all the assignments.

Non attending students just take exams.

The course is based on instructor notes and a curated selection of academic and policy readings aligned with each topic. Recommended references include Nicola Persico’s Strategy Beyond Markets and complementary materials on competition policy and recent case analyses. These readings support the case‑driven approach of the second part of the course and are closely connected to the lectures.