Industrial Organization

We wrote this book to help students learn about industrial organization. As the field of industrial organization has changed over the past two decades, the industrial organization courses we teach at Colgate University and Hamilton College have evolved as well; this book reflects much of what we have learned by teaching. Industrial organization has moved from being primarily empirically oriented to relying more extensively on sophisticated theoretical models. In keeping with this change, this text uses game theory as a unifying method of analysis of firm and industry conduct. Yet, as the transition from an empirical to a theoretical orientation has occurred, we have feared a loss of the valuable empirical tradition on which the field has been built. Over time we have become convinced that our students have learned best when we presented them with both the modern theory of industrial organization and an array of empirical examples of industry behavior and performance.