Despite efforts made by European Commission to liberalize electricity markets and foster integration, there are still significant barriers to free competition. Until now, Romania was one of the countries that have been compliant to the European Union's electricity directives, being ahead of...

This paper characterises the impact of vertical integration on price equilibria and incentives to strategically withhold capacity in a wholesale electricity auction. A two-stage game is analysed where vertically integrated firms first declare the quantity of electricity available and then...

Recent deregulation of telecommunications in the U.S. and elsewhere has highlighted the importance of interconnection in network industries. In this paper, we analyze interconnection in a deregulated network where the participants compete in the final retail market. We consider both the case of...

This paper examines a decade of retail competition in the Dutch electricity market and discusses market structure, regulation, and market performance. We find a proliferation of product variety, in particular by the introduction of quality-differentiated green-energy products. Product innovation...

State owned corporations have been serial offenders of competition law. Of the 21 abuse ofdominance complaints referred to the Tribunal between October 1999 and September 2016,13 involved former or current SOCs. SOCs often hold monopoly positions and control essentialinfrastructure and the...

Although the allocative efficiency benefits of competition are a tenet of microeconomic theory, the relation between competition and technical efficiency is less well understood. Neoclassical models of profit-maximization subsume static cost-minimizing behavior regardless of market...

The aim of this paper is to give deeper insights into the impact of regulatory reforms and privatization on R&D spending of electricity utilities. Building on a panel data set including the biggest European utilities from eight EU-countries over a period from 1985 until 2010, we find a strong...

Recent deregulation of telecommunications in the US and elsewhere has highlighted the importance of interconnection in network industries. In this paper, we analyse interconnection in a deregulated network where the participants compete in the final retail market. We consider both the case of a...

Empirical work shows that competition is important for promoting economic growth. However, in Japan the promotion of competition has long been compromised by ministerial guidance and exemptions from the competition law. Thus, the level and growth of productivity have been low in many...

Maintaining rapid economic growth depends increasingly on productivity gains, particularly in the service sector. Competition has an important role to play in achieving such gains. However, Korea’s development strategy has tended to weaken competition and has left a legacy of government...