Horizontal shifts in bid curves observed in wholesale electricity markets are consistent with Cournot competition. Quantity competition reduces the informational requirements associated with evaluating market performance because the markups of all producers then depend on the same inverse...

Most economists' instinctive reaction to price controls is that they are harmful. If enforced, they result in shortages and resource misallocation. With weak enforcement they often result in black markets, and high transaction costs. In this paper we assess the pros and cons of rice price...

A parsimonious theoretical model of second degree price discrimination suggests that the business cycle will affect the degree to which firms are able to price-discriminate between different consumer types. We analyze price dispersion in the airline industry to assess how price discrimination...

In many countries hospital regulation undergoes fundamental change. In reaction to steadily increasing costs, authorities switch from cost of service regulation to prospective payment systems (PPS). While it seems clear that this new scheme sets strong cost saving incentives, this is not so...

Ungeachtet der vielfältigen Anstrengungen hat sich die Genauigkeit makroökonomischer Prognosen seit den 1970er Jahren nicht verbessert. Deshalb mahnen (manche) Ökonomen "mehr Wettbewerb" unter den Prognoseinstituten an – und hoffen, dass die allokative Effizienz marktlicher Lösungen auch...

Die Theorie des Wettbewerbs als Entdeckungsverfahren behauptet, daß die Ergebnisse des Wettbewerbes nicht vorhergesagt werden können, weil hierzu Tatsachen benötigt würden, die durch ihn erst entdeckt werden sollen. Dann wäre es allerdings unmöglich, Aussagen über Wettbewerb empirisch zu...

Actors on print media markets face two different (and interrelated) demand curves: the demand for copies and the demand for advertising space. This paper develops a realistic, yet simple, model of print media industries. In contrast to earlier studies, it takes into account that print media...

Based on a unique dataset of legislative changes in industrial countries, we identify events that strengthen the competition control of mergers and acquisitions, analyze their impact on banks and non-financial firms and explain the different reactions observed with specific regulatory...

The paper analyzes the labor market effects of globalization when foreign market entry is costly and risky. With flexible labor markets, a fall in foreign market entry cost tends to generate more income inequality. By contrast, when workers cannot easily switch industries and wages are...