I study the predictability of the EC’s merger decision procedure before and after the 2004 merger policy reform based on a dataset covering all affected markets of mergers with an official decision documented by DG Comp between 1990 and 2014. Using the highly flexible, non-parametric random...

Classic artificial intelligence (Q-learning) algorithms have been capable of consistently learning supra-competitive pricing strategies in infinitely repeated Nash-Bertrand pricing games without human communication. Such algorithms have been able to converge due to the temporal correlation of...

Scholars and enforcement officials debate the merits and implications of “behavioral antitrust” — the application of empirical evidence showing how human behavior departs systematically and predictably from strict rationality (“bounded rationality”) to antitrust law. Notwithstanding...

Lacking predictability of competition-law enforcement has its costs. This paper shows that academic analyses of what competition laws should look like do not always treat this factor adequately, paying instead excessive attention to the problem of error. Namely, some analyses completely ignore...

I study the predictability of the EC’s merger decision procedure before and after the 2004 merger policy reform based on a dataset covering all affected markets of mergers with an official decision documented by DG Comp between 1990 and 2014. Using the highly flexible, non-parametric random...

I study the predictability of the EC's merger decision procedure before and after the 2004 merger policy reform based on a dataset covering all affected markets of mergers with an official decision documented by DG Comp between 1990 and 2014. Using the highly flexible, non-parametric random...

This paper discusses the question whether self-learning price-setting algorithms are able to coordinate their pricing behaviour to achieve a collusive outcome that maximizes the joint profits of the firms using these algorithms. While the legal literature generally assumes that algorithmic...

So far, if one wished to analyse economic markets in all their complexity - i.e. by incorporating all information regarding firm and consumer behavior available from the fields of economics, marketing, consumer research, competitive strategy, and business analysis - she had to use formulas with...

We analyze the effects of better algorithmic demand forecasting on collusive profits. We show that the comparative statics crucially depend on the whether actions are observable. Thus, the optimal antitrust policy needs to take into account the institutional settings of the industry in question....