This paper discusses ways of strengthening the competitive environment in order to help boost productivity performance in various sectors of the Danish economy. It looks at a number of indicators of the strength of competition — including price levels, industrial concentration and product...

Prices for many goods and services in Belgium are higher than in other countries, reflecting generally weak competitive pressures. The government has recently introduced several reforms to strengthen the competition policy framework. Nevertheless, to reap the full benefits of competitive...

In this paper we study the impact of the income distribution on innovation through the demand for quality goods. For simplicity, we assume that there are two types of consumers, rich and poor. The income distribution is measured by the population share of the poor and the relative income of the...

Empirical evidence on the relationship between a country?s wealth inequality and economic growth is ambiguous. This paper provides reasonable explanations of this ambiguity. We investigate the implications which the shape of wealth distribution has for economic growth in a framework combining...

Africa: A continent is waking up. Not through aid or wealth from the exploitation of natural resources, but through a technological revolution. The access to affordable mobile telecommunication. Inspired by deregulation and pioneered by local champions who have taken a lead in what is today's...

In media markets, consumers spread their attention to several outlets, increasingly so as consumption migrates online. The traditional framework for studying competition among media outlets rules out this behavior by assumption. We propose a new model that allows consumers to choose multiple...

In March 2000, the Lisbon Summit set the European Union the goal of becoming ‘the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy in the world' by 2010. This chapter aims to ascertain the extent to which various indicators of innovation in EU15 have improved and whether such improvement...

We build on the imperfection of intellectual property rights as the central motivation for the organization of firms. There are several characteristics specific to a theory of the firm grounded on the absence of intellectual property rights: monetary incentive schemes arise naturally as a...

This study examines barriers to entry in the South African retail banking informed by Capitec's experiences as an entrant. In some ways Capitec's experience is exceptional. It surged ahead early attempts to bank the excluded from banks such as Ubank (former Teba Bank) and the Mzansi initiative....

This paper studies the macroeconomic implications of firm-branding activities. We show empirically that firms build market share by creating new brands, developing their existing brands, and buying established brands from other firms. Sales and prices of the underlying branded products tend to...