Increasing price levels, high price volatility and the suspicion of collusive behavior are important topics of public debates on competition in retail gasoline markets in many countries. Several governments and competition authorities introduced fuel price regulations in form of restrictions on...

This thesis strives to offer new insights in two main areas. First, in the well-researched domain of payment cards chapters 2 and 3 investigate an aspect that has hitherto been scantly examined, namely, the fact that merchant usage fees differ substantially among merchant sectors. Additionally,...

Vietnam has gone through massive economic restructuring from a socialist command economy to market-oriented economy. This provides an excellent example of a country that has experienced changes in competition regime. Economic reforms in late 1980s and 1990s and the introduction of...

In order to study the effect of sector-specific regulation on industry behavior and market outcome, regulatory density must be measured. The Polynomics Telecommunication Regulation Index 2012 aims to provide such a measure for telecommunications. It is based on coded answers to almost 30...

Based on the seminal paper of Farrell (1957), researchers have developed several methods for measuring efficiency. Nowadays, the most prominent representatives are nonparametric data envelopment analysis (DEA) and parametric stochastic frontier analysis (SFA), both introduced in the late 1970s....

Knowledge exchange, innovation policy, and international trade flows are key aspects of the knowledge-based economy. In her introduction to the special issue on The Knowledge-Based Society: Transition, Geography, and Competition Policy the author briefly reviews these aspects. She begins with...

This paper analyzes the effect of inter urban buses competing on a few routes against trains within an established railway network. In line with expectations, we show that this can lead to unprofitable train service on these routes. However, within an established railway network with every track...

Contractual and regulatory provisions for access affect incentives to invest in an upgraded network and, in particular, a next-generation access network. Investment decisions are made under uncertainty and have to be made over time. This papers provides a framework for taking uncertainty, risk...

To avoid high profit levels often experienced in countries where monopolies in public utility sectors are regulated through price-cap mechanisms, several regulatory agencies have recently introduced profit-sharing (PS) clauses aimed at obtaining price reductions to the benefit of consumers....

All advanced industrialized societies face the problem of air pollution produced by motor vehicles. In spite of striking improvements in internal combustion engine technology, air pollution in most urban areas is still measured at levels determined to be harmful to human health. Throughout the...