Should the EU introduce an Optional European Contract Law Code and what should it look like? By applying economic theories of federalism and regulatory competition (legal federalism), it is shown why an Optional Code would be a very suitable legal instrument within a two-level European System of...

Although both in US antitrust and European competition law there is a clear evolution to a much broader application of rule of reason (instead of per-se rules), there is also an increasing awareness of the problems of a case-by-case approach. The error costs approach (minimizing the sum of...

Patent settlements between originator and generic firms in the pharmaceutical industry have been challenged by antitrust and competition authorities in the U.S. and the EU. Particularly settlements with large "reverse payments" to generic firms raise the concern of collusive behaviour for...

Die hier abgedruckten Beiträge lassen sich in drei große Themengruppen einordnen. In der ersten Themengruppe mit den Arbeiten von v. Weizsäcker, Beckenbach und Hanappi stehen theoretische und normative Grundsatzfragen der Evolutorischen Ökonomik im Vordergrund. Wie können normative...

In this paper, we show that a provision in antitrust law to allow patent settlements with a later market entry of generics than the date that is expected under patent litigation can increase consumer welfare. We introduce a policy parameter for determining the optimal additional period for...

In this empirical study all mergers that have been challenged by the U.S. antitrust agencies FTC and DOJ between 1995 and 2008 were analyzed in regard to the question to what extent and how the agencies assessed the innovation effects of mergers. Theoretical background is the still open question...

Obwohl es dem Konzept des Soft Paternalismus gelang, die Aufmerksamkeit auf die Bedeutung verhaltensökonomischer Erkenntnisse und die verhaltensbeeinflussende Wirkung von 'weichen' Politikinstrumenten wie Default rules zu lenken, wird gezeigt, dass der Soft Paternalismus nur einen sehr...

Die fortschreitende wirtschaftliche Integration und die vielfältigen Möglichkeiten für globale unternehmerische Aktivitäten erfordern Strategien zu ihrer Umsetzung. Bedarf es globaler Wettbewerbsregeln, um den globalen Wettbewerb zu schützen? Für Ulf Böge, Bundeskartellamt, sollte der Weg...

In its Communication "Building a European data economy" the EU Commission discusses the introduction of a new exclusive property right on data ("data producer right") for non-personal (or anonymised) machine-generated data, and mandatory access rights to privately held data for achieving more...