We use a Cournot model with complementary demands to derive sufficient conditions for mergers that increase market concentration and multi-market participation to lower prices, raise industry profits and hence increase economic welfare. Notably, these findings do not depend upon the realization...

Broadband Internet involves two vertical relationships: the Internet Service Provider (ISP) requires both a physical conduit (e.g. telephone or cable television lines) and content. The ISPconduit relationship has been subject to controversial unbundling regulation, but no such rules apply to the...

This paper makes the case that the structure of payment systems is such that, in contrast to competition in normal markets, private incentives can encourage activities and pricing that do not necessarily improve social welfare. Furthermore, while there is usually a reasonable presumption that...

This article summarizes the law and economics theory of IPRs, while at the same time suggests hints for further research. The standard literature on IPRs generally relies on the thesis of the incentive to create new ideas. Although this argument remains valid in the general case, in several...

We analyze the complex nature of interactions among participants in "two-sided" payments system markets, examine empirical evidence on benefits, especially merchant benefits, and re-assess the role of interchange in balancing interests and allocating costs between merchants and consumers. We...

We present a review of the regulation of general acceptance payment cards in Mexico. We find that there are distortions that may justify public intervention. The market for payment cards is underdeveloped and the usage of debit cards at POS is restricted. Also, the structure of the interchange...

In German mobile phone contracts, calls in the provider's home net are usually less expensive than external calls (to the network of a competitor). Thus customers have to compare vectors of prices, and such a comparison can be the source of a fallacy in the presence of network externalities....

The purpose of this paper is to provide a quantitative assessment of the degree of concentration in infrastructure industries at the regional and global levels. We calculate regional and global concentration indexes for electricity generation and distribution, water and sanitation, and fixed and...

The freight railways sector has three attributes that have proved problematic for recent experiments with vertical separation: a) a relatively high share of network costs in total delivered service costs, b) an apparent persistence of economies of scale at the "competitive" train operations...

The Comisión Reguladora de Energía of Mexico has implemented a netback rule for linking the Mexican natural gas price to the Texas natural gas benchmark price in an industry structure characterized by a vertically integrated state-owned monopoly. This paper shows that in an open economy where...