This paper empirically analyses the determinants of firm participation in Research Joint Ventures (RJVs). A review of the theoretical literature highlights the difficulty of identifying testable hypotheses. Using a large database of European RJVs, we estimate a participation equation at the firm...

This paper addresses the issue of investment in electricity generation in the context of a liberalised market. We use the main results derived from a theoretical model where firms invest strategically to simulate the Spanish electricity system with real-world data. Our results indicate that,...

A number of European countries, among them the UK and Spain, have opened up their Directory Enquiry Services (DQs) market to competition. In Spain, both local and foreign firms challenged the incumbent as of April 2003. The latter raised its rivals' costs and forced quality downgrading by...

This paper presents an econometric analysis of foreign direct investment flows in the four large countries of the EC, at the sectoral level and for the period 1984-89. We find that technological sourcing might be an important motive behind investment flows originating in the US and Japan but not...

This paper estimates sectoral mark-ups in the Spanish economy during the period 1983–1996. The data consists of a large firm level data set that encompasses all sectors of economic activity apart from financial institutions. The time period considered is well suited to assess the...

This paper presents a simple model to analyse the impact of geographically localised spillovers on the internationalisation decision of firms. We argue that, once spatially bounded externalities are taken into account, the standard predictions on the nature and direction of foreign direct...

A review of the literature indicates that Foreign Direct Investment has the potential to increase the intensity of competition and to act as a channel for technology transfers. Using a Spanish firm level data set, we disentangle these effects by estimating a dynamic model of firm level...

Four main conclusions stand out from the analysis. First, we conclude that the motivations behind foreign direct investment (FDI) raise issues of principle for competition policy but are too general to warrant attention. Second, we find that the pattern of investment across industries in the EC...