This paper examines the causes and effects of mobile number portability (MNP) and provides a survey of its implementation in Europe. We first examine the competitive effects and the costs of introducing MNP. Next, we discuss how to charge for MNP. We argue that a price cap regime starting from...

Das Pay-TV ist eine Angebotsform des Fernsehens, die Ökonomen a priori positiv betrachten, weil sie auf der Basis des üblichen marktwirtschaftlichen Preismechanismus funktioniert, das grundsätzlich das Angebot nach der Nachfrage und damit nach den Präferenzen der Zuschauer steuert. Die...

This article discusses the Lisbon Agenda from the perspective of entrepreneurship policy. After a brief overview of the events leading up to the development of the Lisbon Agenda, the authors describe the goals and content of this policy framework as well as of the Structural Funds. Using...

We interpret the Open Method of Coordination (OMC), recently adopted by the EU as a mode of governance in the area of social policy and other fields, as an imitative learning dynamics of the type considered in evolutionary game theory. The best-practise feature and the iterative design of the...

Among ENP countries, Azerbaijan is outstanding because it leans on its resource base and sees the EU at the receiving end of bilateral relations. At the other extreme, Ukraine depends on EU cooperation, especially with respect to trade. We develop a comprehensive theoretical concept for...

The paper starts with a description of major reforms of EU policy in the network industries. Based on the normative economics of regulation, it then points out generic information and transaction cost problems of regulatory policy making. An appropriate allocation of regulatory competencies may...

Die Schaffung eines Binnenmarktes ohne wirtschaftliche und rechtliche Hemmnisse ist oberstes Ziel der Europäischen Gemeinschaft. Während bereits viele Unternehmen die Möglichkeiten des europäischen Binnenmarktes ausschöpfen, ist das Kaufverhalten der Verbraucher im grenzüberschreitenden...

Both in US antitrust and EU competition policy a development to a broader appli-cation of rule of reason instead of per se rules can be observed. In the European discussion the attempt to base competition policy on a more economic approach is mainly viewed as im-proving the economic analysis in...

In this paper, the introduction of direct-democratic decision-making in all EU decisions is considered when it is feasible without prohibitively increasing decision-making costs. We start with the contractarian argument that each constitution is a contract joining the citizens of a state and...