Abstract: Competition policy is perhaps the field in which the European Commission has the most extensive powers. Born institutionally in 1950, European competition policy now has a sixty year-long history. This paper argues that its history has not been peaceful, and that it has been...

Patent pools are cooperative agreements between several patent owners to bundle the sale of their respective licenses. In this paper we analyze their consequences on the speed of the innovation process. We adopt an ex ante perspective and study the impact of possible pool formation on the...

Empirical evidence on the relationship between democracy and economic reforms is limited to few reforms, countries, and years. This paper studies the impact of democracy on the adoption of economic reforms using a new dataset on reforms in the financial, capital and banking sectors, product...

This paper defines the elements that comprise a competitive setting and clarifies the objectives of competition policy. The role and primary task of competition policy are emphasized. A framework for competition policy and the basic elements to implement it are spelled out. The major areas of...

With the "more economic approach" the EU is taking a new tack on merger control policy. This is visible not only in the new SIEC prohibition criterion and the criteria for appraising horizontal mergers but also in more recent decision-making practice. Greater legal certainty, on the one hand,...

The extra-territorial effects of cartels, mergers and other non-competitive activities require consideration especially if they harm consumers and firms in developing countries. This paper provides an overview of the available empirical literature regarding the impact of cartels, mergers and...

The competition rules and policy framework of the European Union represents an important institutional restriction for doing sports business. Driven by the courts, the 2007 overhaul of the approach and methodology has increased the scope of competition policy towards sports associations and...

The paper addresses the issue of legal issues of competition policy during the economic crisis. During the economic crisis public authorities are forced to redefine the aims of public policies and harmonize them. The paper aims at identifying spheres, where competition policy is limited by other...

Economists have long recognized that in free markets, incentives to innovate will be diluted unless some factors grant innovators with a temporary monopoly. Patenting is the most cited factor in the economic literature. This survey concentrates on another factor that confers innovators with...