Industrial organization is a policy course concerned with the structure of firms and markets and their interactions. Real world market frictions such as limited information, transaction costs, costs of adjusting prices, advertising and research and development expenses, government actions, and barriers to entry by new firms into a market will be examined. This course offers a critical understanding of specific industries such as computers, airline, automobile, telecommunications, etc. Students study how firms in such industries strategically react to rivals and customers, and further examine the impact of antitrust regulation, public utility regulation and social regulation on American business. Prerequisite: 310 and 311