Our trust in competition policy is based on faith in markets. <p> When markets are oligopolies, already classical economists’ trust in <p> competition busted: Oligopolies carry the seeds of collusion. To develop, <p> collusion needs trust between firms. But new leniency programmes are <p> designed to bust...</p></p></p></p>

Recent policy initiatives within the harmonization of European company laws have promoted a so-called "principle of proportionality" through proposals that regulate mechanisms opposing a proportional distribution of ownership and control. We scrutinize the foundation for these initiatives by...

We analyze a closely held corporation characterized by the absence of a resale market for shares and by potentially having several significant shareholders. The founder of the firm may optimally choose to distribute voting power to several large shareholders since this forces them to form...

We analyse the relationship between the distribution of ownership and the allocation <p> of control in Danish closely held corporations. First, we investigate why firms have boards. Second, <p> we identify relationships between owners, boardmembers and CEOs in these firms. Third, we show <p> the presence...</p></p></p>

The paper analyses the extent of and the reasons behind limits to competition policy <p> harmonisation in EU enlargement. Our focus is on vertical restraints. First, we <p> compare the relevant legal regimes towards vertical agreements in the EU and in <p> Eastern Europe. We then describe competition...</p></p></p>

We show that the standard concertina result for tariff reforms – i.e. lowering the highest tariff increases welfare – no longer holds in general if we allow for international capital mobility. The result can break down if the good whose tariff is lowered is not capital intensive. If the...

na

na

Recent policy initiatives in the EU aim at supporting so-called Young Innovative Companies (YICs). This paper provides empirical evidence from German CIS data on the innovative performances of this specific type of firms, supporting why they matter. We first characterize YICs in the sample of...

This paper uses an adapted version of the linear tracing procedure, suggested by Harsanyi and Selten (1988), in order to discriminate between two types of multiple Nash equilibria. Equilibria of the same type are pay-off equivalent in the analysed multiple-unit unit price auction where two...