More than a decade has passed since the liberalization of telecommunications in the Netherlands. Nevertheless, the regulator is still mandating access to local access networks, and the incumbent and cable operators have been dragging their feet on upgrading their networks to fiber-based next...

This paper, which has been prepared for the conference on Economic Governance and Competition at Tilburg University, examines private ordering within the payment card industry to define appropriate security practices and to monitor compliance by network participants. This private ordering regime...

When a monopolist has discretion over the timing of infrastructure investments, regulation of post-investment prices interferes with incentivizing socially optimal investment timing. In a model of regulated lumpy investment under uncertainty, we study regulation when the regulator can condition...

More and more companies appear with strange abbreviations behind their business name. Consider Chrysler Group LLC (instead of Inc.) or LVMH Montres & Joaillerie France SAS. Some even speak about the “endangered corporate form” and point to the rise of the uncorporation. This Primer examines...

Water is an exhaustible natural resource. Access to clean, safe and affordable water must be managed nowadays not only to avoid any unnecessary use of water, but also allow for continuous supply of such an important factor of public well-being. In recent years, water-related activities acquired...

This paper, based on my concluding remarks at the Colloquium on the Economic Aspects of Gambling Regulation: EU and US Perspectives held at Tilburg in November 2006, discusses the question why, in Europe, some service sectors (such as network industries) are liberalised, while others (like the...

For the last decade economists have been preoccupied with the decline in bank financing to small businesses and entrepreneurs. This effort has produced a better understanding of the obstacles to external financing. We examine the market and policy instruments that in some sense encourage more...

Access to the network is one of the key tools used by regulators to stimulate competition in network industries. For instance, incumbents in the telecommunications sector, in the European Union and elsewhere, are typically mandated to grant access to their network to their rivals. Third-party...

Due to legislative and judicial developments, standard-setting has come to the forefront of public debates. Being for a long time considered as a 'no passing zone' for everyone but engineers and technical experts, standard-setting organizations (SSOs) have produced a rowing solid body of...

Under strict net neutrality Internet service providers (ISPs) are required to carry data without any differentiation and at no cost to the content provider. We provide a simple framework with a monopoly ISP to evaluate different net neutrality rules. Content differs in its sensitivity to delay....