Are dominant online search engines monopolies enjoying low contest-ability, due to high barriers to entry, or innovative first-movers? This paper argues that dominant online search engines maintain their leadership through an “innovation feedback loop”: a process whereby increasing R&D...

While developed economies like the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany are often cited as classic examples of successful liberalised and private-sector led electricity markets, events such as: (i) the California electricity crisis of 2000-2001; (ii) the blackouts in parts of North America...

Price and quantity regulations, as well as statutory vehicle and driver standards, for the taxi and PHV sector have long been justified on grounds of imperfect information (OECD 2008). The nature of taxi markets in the pre-digital era was such that searching (finding and sorting through the...

Over the past two years, there has been a worldwide regulatory backlash against new smartphone-app-based Private Hire Vehicle (PHV) operators, with Uber probably being the most emblematic one. While a few regulatory clarifications can be justified, the vast majority of measures have been...

In September 2016, Transport for London (TfL) launched a consultation on its review of the regulations covering private hire vehicles (PHVs), commonly known as minicabs. Whilst recent technological developments have had important implications for the private passenger transport sector –...

Spain’s transport infrastructure policy has become a paradigmatic case of oversupply and of mismatch with demand. The massive expansion of the country’s transport infrastructure over the last decade has not been a response to demand bottlenecks or previously identified needs. For this...

Spain’s transport infrastructure policy has become a paradigmatic case of oversupply and of mismatch with demand. The massive expansion of the country’s transport infrastructure over the last decade has not been a response to demand bottlenecks or previously identified needs. For this...

This paper studies road safety and accident externalities when insurance companies have market power, and can influence road users' driving behaviour via insurance premiums. We obtain both welfare and profit maximizing marginal conditions for first- and second-best insurance premiums for...

Administrative agencies increasingly enlist the judgment of private firms they regulate to achieve public ends. Regulation concerning the identification and reduction of risk - from financial, data and homeland security risk to the risk of conflicts of interest - increasingly mandates broad...

This paper investigates second-best congestion pricing in a monocentric city characterized by distortionary, rigid regulatory mechanisms in the housing market (building height restrictions, zoning and property taxation). The Pigouvian toll is shown to retain its optimality under any setting with...