It must not be easy being a rating agency. Where corporate debt is concerned, the major credit rating agencies (“CRAs”) are said to be too slow and lagging the market. When the topic is structured finance, the agencies are said to inflate ratings to attract business. And when the subject is...

This paper explores the relationship between the position of individuals in the labour market (employment characteristics and wages) and their education level in order to determine the private returns to education in Greece. Specifically, the focus is on the impact of the crisis on the returns...

In its Guidance Paper on Article 102 TFEU, the Commission established three conditions that in its view must normally be satisfied before a "refusal to deal" or "margin squeeze" may be considered contrary to Article 102 TFEU, mirroring those established by the European Court of Justice (the...

Some of the roots underlying the recent crisis may be found in the global convergence towards a model characterized by strong property rights and an extremely limited role attributed to “open science.” The modern economy has increasingly moved from an open science – open markets model...

The purpose and methodology of this article is as follows: first, to understand the general nature of the current crisis (banking, financial, debt, currency, constitutional, political) from a socio-legal, economic, ideological and political perspective; then, to analyse the complexity of the...

Reforms of financial regulation after the crisis of 2007-2009 raise the question of what is the relation between financial regulators and competition authorities. Should competition authorities play a role in financial regulation? Should they co-operate with financial regulators? Or should they...

This introductory essay for a symposium on antitrust enforcement during economic crises provides a brief historical overview of the failures of antitrust enforcement during major economic crises and wars in the first half of the twentieth century. It then considers the reasons that historical...

The lingering pandemic and associated lockdown measures have undoubtedly an impact on banks’ balance sheets. It is expected that the ratio of banks’ non-performing loans (NPLs) will raise significantly once Member States fully unwind the support measures introduced to contain the impact of...

This article investigates the nexus of competition and stability in European banking. It analyzes the European legal framework for competition policy in banking and several cases that pertain to anti-cartel policy, merger policy, and state-aid control. It discusses whether and how competition...

In times of crisis, there is reduced demand for consumer durables and the manufacturing industry tends to suffer from excess capacity. Due to liquidity problems, the banking sector too suffers critically. Generally, one observes an accelerated merger control activity across all the sectors, but...