Trade conflicts, geopolitical tensions, digital disruption, and the climate crisis pose major challenges for the European Union (EU) and its member states. As called for in the Draghi Report, industrial policy measures can increase competitiveness, strengthen resilience, and facilitate the twin...

The Illumina/Grail case, which significantly rejected the EU Commission's wide interpretation of its powers of accepting a referral of a merger that did not meet the national merger control thresholds of the referring Member State, introduced changes in the EU about concentrations (Article 22 of...

This paper reconsiders how labor market competition shapes skill development - integrating the perspectives of both firms and workers. While existing models often predict that firms will underinvestment in training due to a fear of poaching, we show that competition can instead serve as a...

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) relies on a complex supply chain comprising five key layers: hardware, cloud infrastructure, training data, foundation models and AI applications. This paper examines the market structure of each layer and highlights the economic forces...

We examine the effect of inter-group competition on within-group violent conflict in Indonesia. Using a triple-differences design, we find that higher competition between villages reduces within-village conflict. These effects persist regardless of the competition's outcome, are stronger in...

This paper studies the relationship between market concentration and aggregate productivity when firmlevel demand emerges from past marketing investments. Granular firms may invest in demand both to complement their productivity and to amplify market power-this second force can create persistent...

The percentage of foreign born residents in the United States has steadily risen over the past half century. This increase has been even more marked for athletes where, in some cases, the foreign born percent on professional sports rosters has approached 30%. We examine the impact this rise has...

This paper reconsiders how labor market competition shapes skill development - integrating the perspectives of both firms and workers. We show that competition serves as a catalyst for learning. It creates outside opportunities which incentivize workers to invest in their own skills, and it...

Algorithm- and data-based recommendation systems (DARS) have become a central component of the digital economy, shaping how users access, evaluate, and consume information and goods. These systems encompass both search rankings tailored to estimated user preferences and direct recommendations...

Since Mario Draghi's 2024 report on "The Future of European Competitiveness", identifying European (i) weaknesses in global innovation and, consequently, in global market impact, as well as (ii) regulatory overburden, the term competitiveness has been propelled into massive popularity. For...

This paper analyzes the behavior of the Argentine chocolate bar industry during the period 2019-2022. It mainly focuses on the level of competition between the firms in the industry, estimating conduct parameters that signal the existence of harder or softer competition. The estimations change...

We study workplace performance effects triggered by team-internal rivalry. Specifically, we focus on duos of goalkeepers in professional soccer competing for in-season playing time. Using performance data from the most prestigious European soccer leagues and tournaments, we provide evidence for...

Gender differences in overconfidence are well documented in the empirical literature, but their impact on labor market outcomes remains underexplored. We provide new insights into how behavioral biases interact with career dynamics by presenting a theoretical analysis of how men's relatively...

The paper explores the impact of bank diversification on earnings opacity. We aim at offering a comprehensive analysis by focusing on four dimensions of diversification: income, assets, funding , and loan portfolios. Using data from Vietnam over the period 2007-2022, we document consistent and...