The future of the information society crucially depends on investments in upgrading existing infrastructures and building new networks. Traditional cost-based regulation, which focuses on issues of static efficiency and service-based competition necessarily has negative effects on innovation...

This paper examines how delivery tariffs and private quality standards are determined in vertical relations that are subject to asymmetric information. We consider an infinitely repeated game where an upstream firm sells a product to a downstream firm. In each period, the firms negotiate a...

We provide a new explanation for the apparent underpricing of initial public offerings applicable to large, regulated firms like telecommunications companies. Under the assumption that regulation is subject to political pressure by voters we demonstrate that it may be rational for issuers to...

We analyze optimal income taxes with deductions for work-related or consumptive goods. We consider two cases. In the first case (called a complex tax system) the tax authorities can exactly distinguish between consumptive and work-related expenditures. In the second case (called a simple tax...

We analyze the effects of accidents and liability obligations on the incentives of car manufacturers to monopolize the markets for their spare parts. We show that monopolized markets for spare parts lead to higher overall expenditures for consumers. Furthermore, while the manufacturers invest...

Im Dezember vergangenen Jahres hat das Europäische Parlament einer Vorlage der Europäischen Kommission zugestimmt, wonach die Schutzrechte für das Design von Auto-Ersatzteilen eingeschränkt werden sollen. Für Ersatzteile, deren Design maßgeblich für ihre Funktionalität oder ihr äußeres...

Der in Gang befindliche Übergang von den klassischen Telekommunikationsnetzen zu "Next Generation Networks" bietet zwar hohe Innovationspotenziale, es besteht aber auch die Gefahr, dass marktmächtige Netzbetreiber ihre dominanten Positionen auf die bisher wettbewerblichen Märkte für...