In this paper we analyze firms' ability to tacitly collude on pricesin an infinitely repeated duopoly game of vertical productdifferentiation. We show that firms collude if and only if their discountfactor is high enough, i.e. if they value future profits sufficiently. We alsoshow that a lower...

In this paper the Spanish export-led growth hypothesis is re-examined from the trade liberalisation process initiated four decades ago. For this purpose it is taken under consideration both the export expansion and the progression from "traditional" exports to manufactured and semi-manufactured...

This paper provides evidence that the expected real term structure contains information about the future real economic growth. We follow Harvey who uses the consumption-based asset-pricing model to derive a forecasting equation that links the stage of the yield curve to expected economic growth....

This study analyses the evolution of market power in the banking sectors of the European Union based on the estimation of Lerner indices. Using a panel of 18,810 observations of the banking industries of Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom during the period 1992-99, the results...

Financial integration in Europe should affect the competition between markets and intermediaries and generate a convergence of both interest rates and margins among the different countries. This paper analyses the evolution of the convergence in interest rates and the level of competition and...

This work presents a clearer way of solving the optimisation problem addressed by Selden and Song (1995)in order to derive the J curve for abatement. The proposed framework is also extended to a two-country model.Results are consistent, also for the two country case, with empirical evidence that...

Competition has long been regarded as productivity enhancing. Understanding the mechanism by which competition affects innovation and productivity is therefore an important topic for economic policy. The main contribution of this paper is to disentangle the relationship between competition and...

This paper contains an analysis of the economic effects of human capital onproduction, measured as Gross Value Added per full-time equivalent worker. To thisend, a Cobb-Douglas type production function has been used, with Gross Value Added(GVA) a function of human capital and private and public...

In this paper, we show that downstream mergers increase the incentives of an up-stream firm to invest in cost-reducing R&D. The upstream firm revenues increase with industry profits, which in turn increase with concentration downstream and this explains the positive link between concentration...

In the context of the recent electricity market reforms in Europe and the US, we evaluate the performance of the Spanish pool. Our method is not based on price-cost estimates but rather on the different behavior of operators with higher market power as compared to the behavior of more...