The paper focuses on competition policy, which is at the center of ordoliberal thinking. Important characteristics are the emphasis on individual freedom, from which the goal of economic efficiency is merely derived; the strong role for the state in the preservation of the prerequisites of...

The traditional analysis of exclusionary bundling examines the impact of a monopolist bundling product A with another product B, which is competitively provided. Using experimental posted-offer markets, we investigate the exclusionary and welfare implications of having a fringe competitor in the...

Scholarship on competition policy has begun to explore the implications of learning from behavioral research and to challenge the assumption of profit maximization at the heart of neoclassical economic theory of the firm. This scholarship is briefly reviewed, focusing on merger control....

This paper presents a standard endogenous growth framework in which the source of growth is represented by vertical innovations. The crucial assumption we introduce is that there is a positive information gap concerning the discovery of innovation. The aim of reducing the...

This paper critically views a number of econometric methods that have been utilized in investigations by competition agencies and in private litigation. The focus is on market definition and unilateral competitive effects. Specific topics include critical-loss analysis, price-correlation...

Telecommunications, airlines, and postal services have similar economic features. However, they have followed different privatization patterns. While privatization of the universal service provider (USP) is common in telecommunications and airlines, it is by far less frequent in the postal...

We analyse how the internal organisation of firms affects the correspondence between private and social incentives for horizontal merger. Applying a model of endogenous merger formation in a three-firm asymmetric Cournot industry, we contrast the cases of entrepreneurial and managerial firms....

Under constant returns to scale the only justification for joint ventures are externalities from knowledge spillovers. In a two-stage game we compare the incentives for integrated cartels and cartels with downstream competition. The externalities introduce an underinvestment incentive. Under...

In our model, an entrant has two effective strategies for profit maximization: collaboration with incumbents and location choice. We analyze the effect of allowing an entrant the opportunity to collaborate with incumbents on its location choice. First, we show that when collaboration requires...

Labor law limits the freedom of individual firms and agents to deviate from the clauses prescribed by collective wage agreements. We show that employers´ associations and unions may exploit this legal framework to stabilize product market cartels. This new view on the institution of collective...