Abstract In mid-2013 the macroeconomic situation in European crisis economies started to show signs of recovery. In the political debate, improving economic conditions were often attributed to recently enacted structural reforms. In this paper, we use empirical business cycle models to...

Summary This paper is about conscious parallelism in a duopoly with differentiated products. Conscious parallelism is modelled by a “policy of fixed relative prices” (frp) i. e. starting from a competitive equilibrium both duopolists vary prices by the same percentage. This price increasing...

Zusammenfassung Die Arbeit untersucht Entscheidungen des Bundeskartellamtes in den Bereichen „Missbrauchsaufsicht" und „Wettbewerbsbeschränkende Vereinbarungen". Die hier interessierende Frage ist, inwieweit die Entscheidungen der Kartellbehörde durch Kenntnis des Vorwurfs und einiger...

Abstract We discuss competition policy issues of vertical integration in internetbased two-sided markets against the background of the Google antitrust allegations. Network effects and economics of scale often lead to dominating companies, which are integrated over several markets. This implies...

Abstract The main purpose of this study is to evaluate factors affecting passenger rail demand, with special attention to the effects of structural reform/regulation and competition. In order to do this, we use data obtained from 30 OECD countries for the 24 years from 1990 to 2013. As...

Abstract: The introduction of the DRG system in 2003/04 can be considered the last real hospital reform. Although the latest reform was called Hospital Structure Act due to its insufficient structural components it is sometimes referred to as missed reform. Essential aspects of the institutional...

Financial crises have significant short-term and long-term social costs. As a result, economic and social indicators have dwindled significantly since 2007. The soar in the unemployment rate has been most marked in so called advanced economies, reaching alarming levels in the tangential Europe...

Abstract We present a simple multiple equilibria model that incorporates the functioning of crony capitalism. We find that a government which is keen to support the interests of the élite is ready to stand the risk of a bank run since this is part of an equilibrium where investments are heavily...