The question of a double dividend from revenue-neutral ecological tax reforms (an ecological advantage plus an economic advantage) has recently become a widely discussed topic both in real-world economic policy and in economic theory. The subject has produced many advocates and opponents in the...

Rules exert an important influence on rational individual behaviour. In economic analyses, two different types of rules occur that both induce rule-following behaviour. However, they are rarely distinguished. The differentiation of institutions (as interpersonal rules) and cognitive rules (as...

Die Internationalisierung des Wettbewerbs führt zur Internationalisierung von Unternehmensstrukturen und zur Internationalisierung privater Wettbewerbsbeschränkungen. Neben grenzüberschreitenden Kartellen und Marktmachtmissbrauch gewinnen in diesem Prozess die Wettbewerbswirkungen...

In the context of the WTO, intellectual property rights (IPR) are codified in the TRIPS-agreement. While covering all the different types of IPR, landmark cases of the still young history of TRIPS have dealt with commercial copyrights. This paper summarizes the basic economics of the IPR branch...

This paper is a comment on the analysis of the German security industry by Stuchtey and Skrzypietz (2014). The comment focuses on two issues. Firstly, it argues that it is advantageous for the research agenda of the authors to conceptualize security as a human need and not as an economic good....

The jurisdictional elements of the comprehensive 2004 reform of EU merger control are worth being analysed against the background of economic theory. Competence allocation and delimitation represent important factors for the workability of multilevel merger control regimes. The economics of...

Contrary to some contemporary arguing, competition economics are characterized by a considerable pluralism of theories and policy paradigms. This includes deviating views on core concepts like the nature of competition, the meaning of efficiency, or the goal of antitrust. The paper demonstrates...

Dominant or apparently dominant internet platform increasingly become subject to both antitrust investigations and further-reaching political calls for regulation. While Google is currently in the focus of the discussion, the next candidate is already on the horizon - the ubiquitous online...

Die sogenannte Ministererlaubnis als Teil der deutschen Fusionskontrolle repräsentiert wahrscheinlich das umstrittenste Instrument sowohl in der juristischen als auch in der ökonomischen Fachdiskussion. Vereinfachend ausgedrückt ermöglicht die Ministererlaubnis dem Bundeswirtschaftsminister,...

Naturally, competition policy is based on competition economics made applicable in terms of law and its enforcement. Within the different branches of competition economics, modern industrial economics, or more precisely gametheoretic oligopoly theory, has become the dominating paradigm both in...