Undergraduate - UnitECG3830 - Business, competition and regulation

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2015 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 3, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Business and Economics
Organisational Unit	Department of Economics
Offered	Not offered in 2015

Synopsis

This unit considers market structures, conduct and performance from the business perspective; economic policy as it affects business, particularly in relation to its dealings with consumers; the variety of approaches to competition and regulation policies from the international perspective; analysis of policies with respect to prices, monopolies, oligopolies and mergers, exclusive dealing, consumer protection and licensing, deregulation and privatisation.

Outcomes

The learning goals associated with this unit are to:

recognise differences in market structures and understand how those differences affect firms' competitive behaviour and performance
understand how and why competition causes changes in market structures by way of mergers, acquisitions, vertical integration and diversification
explain the economic rationale for competitive weapons utilised by business in contemporary competitive environment, such as barriers to entry, pricing and advertising strategies, product differentiation, and innovation
explain the rationale for regulation and merits of different theories of regulation.
explain the arguments for and against privatisation
understand the main features of national competition policies in the countries of particular interest to Monash University in Australia and overseas
critically evaluate attempts to increase competition in particular industries, e.g. aviation, electricity and telecommunications, where there are ongoing reforms.
demonstrate in individual summative assessment tasks the acquisition of a comprehensive understanding of the topics covered in this unit.

Assessment

Within semester assessment: 40%
Examination: 60%

Workload requirements

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. Independent study may include associated readings, assessment and preparation for scheduled activities. The unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

Prerequisites

Students must have passed one of the following: ECG2731, ECS2731 or ECW2731 before undertaking this unit.

Prohibitions

ECC3830, ECS3830, ECW3830, ECX3900