Market structure and competition policy Business Coursework

1. You should select a dataset of at least the 10 largest firms for one defined market (product market and geographic market). The dataset must include data on sales for all 10 firms for one year. Describe and justify your choice of relevant market in terms of the products and geographic delimitation. Be specific about which products you include in your market. [50%]
2. Calculate the C4 concentration ratio and HH index using the sales data. Comment on the concentration level and on the market structure of your selected market. Explain whether the level of concentration could potentially be overestimated or underestimated by your choice of relevant market. [50%]

Industrial Economics III: Market Structure and Competition Policy INDIVUDUAL COURSEWORK BRIEF Project Guidelines and Administration:  This is an individual coursework. Your coursework needs to be submitted electronically on moodle before 15:00 on Thursday, November 12, 2020. The coursework mark will account for 20% of the total mark of the module.  The maximum word limit is 1,000 words. This should include all answers, but should exclude the reference list, tables, figures, and appendices. You must include a word count. Criteria for Marking Although there is no strict weighting given to different criteria, good marks will be awarded for projects that have the following qualities:  accurate results  evidence of critical thought and analysis  evidence of reading beyond the lecture material and main textbook  logical structure  good writing skills (vocabulary, syntax, structure)  accurate referencing Strengths in one area may compensate for weaknesses in another. As a general rule, projects should go beyond a mere description of facts and show some evidence of analysis. Originality and creativity are also desirable attributes of this type of coursework. You cannot choose any of the following industries, as they will be analysed during classes: American banking, American airlines, American beer, and American agriculture, American movies. You also cannot choose Chinese wine (baijiu). Plagiarism will be checked. Project Questions 1. You should select a dataset of at least the 10 largest firms for one defined market (product market and geographic market). The dataset must include data on sales for all 10 firms for one year. Describe and justify your choice of relevant market in terms of the products and geographic delimitation. Be specific about which products you include in your market. [50%] 2. Calculate the C4 concentration ratio and HH index using the sales data. Comment on the concentration level and on the market structure of your selected market. Explain whether the level of concentration could potentially be overestimated or underestimated by your choice of relevant market. [50%] Guidelines: There should be a discussion about industry delimitation that explicitly elaborates on the concepts of cross-elasticity of demand and supply. You are not required to calculate CED or CES but rather comment on substitutability based on evidence provided in your readings (academic literature, industry analysis reports, and other sources), as well as your own analysis. You are allowed to focus on one dimension (product or geographic dimension) if the other dimension is relatively obvious. You should describe your data sources and display data in a table. Note that, for some markets, data may not be available, and for other markets there may be less than 10 firms. You should focus on a market with at least 10 firms for which data is available. For Q2 your analysis should be based on concentration and possibly other factors such as product characteristics.