78361 - Competition in Tourism Markets

Learning outcomes

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to economic tools for understanding competition in tourist markets, both from a theoretical and an empirical point of view. At the of the course, students will be able to i) make sense of tourist firms' choices concerning pricing, product characteristics, innovation and advertising, with a particular attention to the international dimension of competition; ii) evaluate the social consequences of these choices, and judge public policies aimed at improving the market outcomes.

Course contents

First module (Prof. Elias Carroni)

• Static imperfect competition (price and quantity competition; strategic substitutes and complements)
• Dynamic aspects of imperfect competition (sequential choices and Stackelberg competition; free entry; industry concentration and firm turnover)
• Product differentiation (horizontal vs. vertical differentiation)
• Consumer inertia (switching costs, customer poaching)
• Market intermediation (dealers, match-makers and two-sided platforms)

Material:

(1) Slides

(2) Book Chapters:

• Market power [Part II - Chapters 3-4]
  
• Sources of market power [Part III - Chapters 5-7]
  
• Market intermediation [Chapter 22 in Part IX]

Second Module (Prof. Stefano Bolatto)

• Pricing strategies and market segmentation (group vs. personalized pricing, menu pricing, intertemporal price discrimination with and without commitment on future prices, pure and mixed bundling)
• Advertising (persuasive vs. informative advertising; effects of advertising on competition)

Materials:

(1) Slides

(2) Book Chapters:

• Pricing strategies and market segmentation [Part IV]
  
• Sources of market power [Part III - Chapter 6]

Readings/Bibliography

Slides and other teaching materials made available on virtuale.unibo.it

Textbook: Belleflamme, Paul, and Martin Peitz, “Industrial organization: markets and strategies”, Cambridge University Press, 2015.

Teaching methods

Lectures, teamworks, math lab with Maple

Assessment methods

Two written midterms or, alternatively, one final written exam over the entire program.

For attending students (those enrolled in the third academic year), midterm exams will consist of both multiple choice and one open-ended question. Each midterm is worth a max of 10/30 of the final grade for the subject.

The remaining 10 points will be assigned based on the participation to a teamwork in form of an in-class presentation on selected topics (discussion of academic articles on tourism economics, published in peer-reviewed journals).

For non-attending students, midterm exams will consist of both multiple choice and two open-ended questions. Each midterm is worth a max of 15/30 of the final grade for the subject.

Students can renege a positive grade only once.

The grade is graduated as follows:

<18 failed
18-23 sufficient
24-27 good
28-30 very good
30 e lode excellent

Teaching tools

Materials will be uploaded on the course page on the Moodle platform (www.virtuale.unibo.it )

Office hours: by appointment for both Prof. Elias Carroni (fist module) and Prof. Stefano Bolatto (second module)

Office hours

See the website of Elias Carroni

See the website of Stefano Antonio Bolatto