The degree of liberalization in OECD electricity markets varies considerably across countries. Commonly explained by diverging economic performances, corruption levels or government ideologies, this paper suggest another potential reason for cross-national differences in market reforms: given...

Using comprehensive loan-level data in China, we investigate how the deregulation on bank entry barriers alters local banking industrial organization and its economic consequences. We document a novel trade-off: the potential benefits of deregulation are adversely mitigated by entrant banks'...

This paper reviews, from an applied, policy-oriented point of view, the process of the creation of the new macro regulator in Spain, the CNMC, which concluded at the end of 2013. The institutional reform merged the competition authority with practically all sector regulators (except for the...

This paper analyzes the monthly evolution of bank competition in Mexico from 2008 to 2019 using different measures. Subsequently, we analyze whether the 2014 financial reform had an effect on some of our competition measures. We use ordinary and quantile regression techniques and Markov...

This paper argues that transforming the postal business model goes hand in hand with a transformation in the definition of universal service obligation. Whilst postal operators need to fully embrace the unique competitive space created by electronic substitution, at the intersection between the...

Using comprehensive loan-level data in China, we investigate how the deregulation on bank entry barriers alters local banking industrial organisation and its economic consequences. We document a novel trade-off: the potential benefits of deregulation are adversely mitigated by entrant banks’...

The paper examines the current state of competition in a number of sectors that are important for the economy. Because of the country’s small size and isolation, the analysis focuses on barriers to entry, investment and external trade, rather than some standard indicators of competition...

The OECD Growth Study and other empirical work have shown that the strength of competition in product markets plays an important role in the economic growth process as well as contributing to a more efficient allocation of resources in a static sense. More intense competition is likely to...

Fifty years ago, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter warned the Federal Communications Commission not to view competition in an abstract, sterile way. To illustrate the dangers of using such an abstract approach to the key issue of ILEC market power, this paper uses the Commission's...