ECO 335, Economics of Regulation and Antitrust is an elective in the undergraduate economics program and graduate economics program. ECO 335 is also the first required course in the Electricity, Natural Gas, Telecommunications Economics Option in the Master's Degree Program.

The course is taught by Dr. David Loomis, Associate Professor of Economics at Illinois State University. Before coming to Illinois State in 1996, Dr. Loomis worked as a research economist at Bell Atlantic Corporation, which is the Regional Bell Operating Company (local telephone company) for the Mid-Atlantic region (this has expanded with recent mergers).

This course covers the origins, aims, methods and effects of economic regulation and antitrust. The course will provide the theoretical foundation for economic analysis while allowing the student to apply sound reasoning to actual legal cases or case studies. The study of legal cases and case studies will be done primarily through in-class discussions.

Students will learn to use economic criteria for judging the applicability of regulation to different industries. Since this course is the first course in the Master's Degree sequence in Policy Studies in Electricity, Natural Gas, and Telecommunications, there will be an emphasis on case studies in these industries. Current events in these and other industries will be analyzed with the economic framework developed in class.

By the conclusion of the course, students should be able to

• understand the reasons for regulation and antitrust,
• determine when antitrust and/or regulation is an appropriate remedy,
• give the relative merits of various regulatory schemes, and
• provide a brief industry background for electricity, natural gas, and telecommunications.
  

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