Auswirkungen der Markttransparenzstelle für Kraftstoffe

The authors analyse how the market transparency unit for fuels in Germany affects both supplier and consumer behaviour. The number of price changes has increased, mainly due to increasing price cuts, as has the spread between the lowest and the highest price of the day — both indicators of intensified competition. The concern that the introduction of the market transparency unit would facilitate collusion appears not to be warranted. In contrast, competition has intensified and consumers are increasingly making use of the price differences. The analysis also reveals that consumers purchased more gasoline in times of low prices (so-called price valleys) in 2015 than they did in 2012. The change in consumer behaviour is an indicator that at least some drivers tend to use fuel price comparison apps fed by data from the market transparency unit.     

The strategies of patent introduction into patent pools

This article explores patterns of patent introduction into seven patent pools over time, analyzing 1337 essential patents. Pools grow significantly after their launch, in particular through the addition of new patents by incumbent members. The generality, width and significance of patents introduced into pools decreases significantly over time. Incumbent members file and introduce patents that are narrower, more incremental and less cited than new entrants. Pool members, however, also introduce patents relevant to larger parts of the standard.     

Age at immigration and educational attainment of young immigrants

This paper investigates up to what immigration age the educational attainment of young immigrants in the Netherlands is similar to the educational attainment of second-generation immigrants. The borderline immigration age appears to depend on gender and country of origin.     

From parent to child: early labor market experiences of second-generation immigrants in the netherlands

This paper is on the early labor market experiences of second-generation immigrants in the Netherlands. With respect to employment rates we find that there are some differences across ethnic groups. However, conditional on having a job there is hardly any difference in wages and other job characteristics between second-generation immigrants and native Dutch of the same age group.     

Die Strompreise der Zukunft

Wirtschaftsdienst - Deutschland hat im internationalen Vergleich bereits seit langem sehr hohe Strompreise. Da Strom teilweise aus Gas erzeugt wird, haben sich die Preise infolge des Ukrainekriegs...     

Plattformökonomie: neue Wettbewerbsregeln — Renaissance der Missbrauchsaufsicht

Wirtschaftsdienst - Die Plattformökonomie entwickelt sich rasant und intensiviert den Wettbewerb. Dieser an sich positiven Entwicklung steht ein hohes Risiko der Marktabschottung durch...     

Legal But Costly: An Analysis of the EU GM Regulation in the Light of the WTO Trade Dispute Between the EU and the USA

In this study, we investigate the new European Union (EU) regulations in the light of the ruling by the World Trade Organization (WTO) panel on the trade in genetically modified crops. To this end, we describe: the basic differences in approaches between the EU and the complaining parties with regard to genetically modified crops, what the main arguments were of the complaining parties as well as the defence of the EU, what the final judgement of the panel was and finally, we describe the current EU regulations. We then analyse to what extent, the arguments and conclusions of the panel still hold regarding the new EU legislation. We find that parts of the current EU legislation, that is, the safety bans as they are currently in place, are in breach of the WTO commitments. Moreover, the new approval procedures have the potential to also break these rules, although whether or not they will, depends on how the European Commission acts. Whether or not the EU will be challenged at the WTO remains an open question, as the decision to fight before the WTO may be more costly than working out new bilateral trade agreements.     

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