In the literature on international trade, very little attention has been given toinformational asymmetries between firms and consumers with respect to product quality.The few economic models that analyze the question of how asymmetric informationabout product quality might affect trade flows...

Der vorliegende Beitrag befasst sich mit aktuellen Wettbewerbsproblemen im deutschen Lebensmitteleinzelhandel. Im Mittelpunkt der Analyse stehen der zunehmende Konzentrationsprozess und seine Determinanten. Darauf aufbauend diskutieren wir Aspekte der Marktabgrenzung insbesondere im Hinblick auf...

In der wettbewerbsbehördlichen Fallpraxis gewinnt die Bestimmung von Nachfragemacht zunehmend an Bedeutung. Bei Fusionsvorhaben im Einzelhandel kann Nachfragemacht ein Hauptgrund für eine Untersagung bzw. für Auflagen sein. In diesem Beitrag wird die aktuelle Diskussion zur Bestimmung von...

We examine how different pass-through rates, from input- to final consumer prices, and different vertical contracts affect upstream market definition. Our theory model predicts that, under reasonable conditions, higher pass-through rates lead to definitions of larger upstream markets. Data from...

Relocation of production to countries with low labour cost have induced increased labour market flexibility, which has been praised as a silver bullet for economic growth and low unemployment. Within a unionised oligopoly framework, in which a multi-national firm has the option to relocate its...

This paper analyses the extent of inter-format retail competition between supermarkets, discounters and drugstores in Germany, using data from the German market for diapers. We estimate a random coefficient logit model at the individual household level. Based on consumer substitution patterns,...

Research on bargaining power in vertical relationships is scarce. It remains particularly unclear which factors drive bargaining power between negotiating parties in a vertical structure. We use a demand model where consumer demand determines the total pie of industry prots. Moreover, we apply a...