This paper is about the price effects caused by a VAT (value-added tax) reduction for menstrual hygiene products in Germany. Several aspects make this VAT reduction particularly interesting: The exogeneity of the reduction under otherwise constant economic conditions, the reduction was...

Economists praise the efficiency of the price mechanism in allocating scarce resources. Others, however, often reject it as unfair. In this study, we investigate the extent to which economists also differ from non-economists in how they value the fairness of the price system, and examine how...

Die Monopolkommission legte kürzlich ihr zweites Sondergutachten über die Wettbewerbsentwicklung bei der Telekommunikation und der Post vor. Welches sind ihre Empfehlungen für den Telekommunikationsbereich? Wie sind sie zu bewerten?

This paper studies competition in the German market for mobile telecommunications, motivated by recent suggestions that T-Mobile and Vodafone possess a position of collective dominance. Allegedly, their position of joint dominance is secured through a combination of first-mover advantages and...

This paper offers a new and broad insight into the landscape of German cartels, utilizing a unique dataset of all illegal horizontal cartels detected by the German Federal Cartel Office (FCO) between 1958 and 2004 and all legal cartels authorized during the same time period. We also provide the...

In den letzten Jahren haben die durch das Bundeskartellamt behandelten Fusionskontrollverfahren im Krankenhaussektor zu einer anhaltenden wettbewerbsökonomischen Debatte geführt. Als eine wichtige Erkenntnis hat sich hierbei ergeben, dass für den überwiegenden Bereich der akutstationären...