Liberalised efforts targeting opening public utility markets and emphasising the beneficial effects of creating a competitive business environment have been increasing in the past few decades. A number of strategically important sectors have already been liberalised (e.g., energy,...

The economics of market concentration and antitrust law have a long-lasting tradition of fruitful interaction. In static neoclassical theory, market concentration - irrespective of the reasons of it – was considered harmful. Later, adherents of the Harvard School correctly observed a...

A rapidly growing literature has shown that market concentration among domestic firms has increased in the United States over the last three decades. Using confidential census data for the manufacturing sector, we show that typical measures of concentration, once adjusted for sales by foreign...

This paper studies the effects of seller concentration and static market power on tacit collusion in extensively repeated laboratory posted-offer markets. Contrary to the implications of some earlier research, we find that tacit collusion does not become pervasive with extensive repetition. In a...

This paper investigates the empirical relationship between competition in the financial sector and the creation of firms in the non-financial sector. It finds that bank competition has an overall positive effect on firm creation. However, consistent with theories of banking arguing that...

As in other sectors, competition in finance matters for allocative, productive and dynamic efficiency. Theory suggests, however, that unfettered competition is not first best given the special features of finance. I review these analytics and describe how to assess the degree of competition in...