The role of the patent system in the pharmaceutical sector is highly debated also due to its strong public health implications. In this paper we develop an evolutionary, agent-based model of the pharmaceutical industry to explore the impact of different configurations of the patent system upon...

This thesis consists of four self-contained papers related to the Nordic electricity market. Paper [I] examine how the reform of the Nordic electricity markets has affected competition in the electric power supply market, Nord Pool. The question is if the common power market has been competitive...

This paper offers a Schumpeterian view of the Great Merger Movement in the American manufacturing industries, which occurred from 1895 to 1904. From this perspective, the Great Merger Movement was a response to competitive pressures associated with a number of significant technological...

This paper estimates a dynamic model of the world oil market and tests whether OPEC countries colluded and whether non-OPEC countries behaved oligopolistically over the period 1970-2004. Results of the analysis by decade support OPEC countries colluding as the dominant cartel producer and...

This paper evaluates the importance of site-specific environmental amenities as a source of product differentiating market power. Using estimates from hedonic price equations and residual demand models, the analysis recovers firm-specific estimates of price markup and estimates of the marginal...

This paper shows that self-employment opportunities shape the market power of employers in low-income countries, with implications for industrial development. Using data from Peru, we document substantial employer concentration and high self-employment rates across manufacturing local labor...

This paper develops a model of firm behavior in the context of oligopoly and portfolio diversification by shareholders. The management of each firm proposes a strategic plan to shareholders, and is evaluated based on the strategic plan. This leads to internalization and aggregation of...

In this study we analyze the determinants of airline price dispersion. We particularly concentrate on the conduct and marginal cost efficiency. The effect of conduct on price dispersion seems to depend on the characteristics of the market. For the big city routes, we observe positive effect; and...

In this study, we examine markups of Austrian banks and their subsidiaries in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe (CESEE) on an unconsolidated level. Markups are evaluated by means of the Lerner index by simultaneously estimating a price and a cost function derived from oligopoly theory....

A central construct in competitive strategy research is market power, the ability to raise price above marginal cost. Positioning research focuses on attempts to build, protect, and exercise market power. However, this approach contains hidden assumptions about transaction costs. Parties made...