This paper provides a critical review of competition policy in Switzerland. We analyse the legal statute, the institutional arrangements for its implementation and the case law since 1985.

This paper examines the effects the planned merger between UBS and SBC would have on competition in the Swiss banking market. It is shown that the merger would lead to a dangerous level of concentration in certain submarkets such as the (economically important) market for credits to small and...

This paper provides a critical review of the competition policy implemented under the 1985 law.

In this paper we specify and estimate a structural model which links product market competition and union power. The model has a two-stage setting in which wages are determined through bargaining between management and unions in the first stage, with a price-setting market game to follow in the...

This paper studies how buyers' integration affects the capacity choice of a producer. Contrary to "conventional wisdom", we show that, under natural assumptions, integration may lead to a higher equilibrium supply level. Our result hinges on the following trade-off: for any given level of...

This short paper reviews the recent anti-trust analysis of banking mergers as well as recent decisions by the Department of Justice and the Bundeskartellamt (in the last few months). We analyse the proposed merger between UBS and SBC in light of this evidence and focus on the domestic retail...

This paper analyses how the competition authorities in the Czech republic, Poland and Hungary (CPH) have dealt with the interface between trade and competition in their actual practice. The following findings emerge (i) there has not been any significant conflict in the allocation of...

In a previous paper we have shown that the UBS-SBC merger would lead to an excessive concentration in the credit market for small and medium companies. The UBS has reacted to this paper in a series of letters to the Swiss competition authorities. We critically examine the content of these...

This paper does not seek to evaluate whether decentralisation of the implementation of Art.81 ECT is desirable but simply analyses how the network of enforcers envisaged in the White Paper would operate. We identify two issues. We observe that in the proposed framework, simultaneous enforcement...

Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es zu untersuchen, inwiefern es der Wettbewerbskommission (Weko) gelungen ist mit ihren Auflagen im UBS-Fall den Wettbewerb im Schweizer Bankengeschäft zu stärken. Wir kommen zum Schluss, dass die Weko ihre Auflagen so lange den Vorstellungen der UBS angepasst hat, bis...