Abstract: In November 2011 Sweden abolished the uniform national electricity price and introduced separate price zones. This was the result of an antitrust settlement between the Commission and the Swedish network operator, which was accused of discriminating between domestic and export...

As part of its Single Market Program the European Commission commanded the liberalization and regulatory harmonization of utilities, transport and telecommunication network services. This paper investigates whether and how this process affected the productivity of European network firms. We...

Within the many changes and revolutions that the (re)insurance industry will face in the next few years, the introduction of the new standard IFRS 4 phase 2 is one that will certainly impact the way in which the (re)insurance business is managed. Not only will this new standard impact insurance...

Under certain circumstance, a relaxation in occupational licensing standards can increase the quality of those who enter the industry. The effect turns on the opportunity costs of preparing for the licensing examination: making the test easier can increase the quality of those passing if it...

The article deals with role of political lobbying as an instrument of economic policy. It describes the ways for studying the lobbying and the problem of its regulation. Moreover, the author gives examples of lobbying in Russia, analyses the necessity of lobbying legalisation for more effective...

Within the EU, a new framework has been designed to define, when banks are considered no longer viable, how such banks can exit the market without creating widespread financial distress and how a smooth exit or recovery should be financed. It onsists of a complex set of rules and international...

The Italian administrative system is currently perceived as one of the main obstacles to a higher growth of the productive system. We argue that some causes of this ineffectiveness are deeply rooted and date back at the unification: a missing strong administrative tradition; an (excessive)...

Insufficient competition remains a major obstacle to growth in Italy. The main culprits include the institutional environment and the regulations governing some economic sectors subject to market failures. As to the former, relative neglect of economic efficiency has produced an unstable and...

Using a sample of 680 and 1,300 judicial and private auctions respectively, we analyze the effect on the wealth of those the law is intended to protect of different regulations applicable to each type of auctions. We find that consistent with a simple economic model, Courts assign judicial...