Recent Developments at DG Competition: 2016/2017

The Directorate General for Competition at the European Commission enforces competition law in the areas of antitrust, merger control, and state aids. This year’s article provides first a general presentation of the role of the Chief Competition Economist’s team and surveys the main achievements of the Directorate General for Competition over 2016/2017. The article then reviews the economic work undertaken in one merger case between Dow/DuPont, which raised specific issues related to innovation, as well as in an antitrust case on parity clauses related to Amazon e-books.     

The Effects of Cross-Ownership and League Policies Across Sports Leagues Within a City

Since prior research suggests that some economic competition exists between teams in different sports leagues, economic competition and ownership structure can affect an owner’s incentive to invest in talent. This paper uses a theoretical model to examine the differences in owners’ incentives to invest in talent when they are operating as monopolists, as duopolists, or as a cross-owned team. Our model shows that economic competition results in an ambiguous level of investment compared to that of a monopolist. A firm that engages in cross-ownership will invest less in talent compared to a duopolist, but the difference in profits is ambiguous. League policies are studied and are shown to affect the quality of teams in other leagues.     

Performance implications of nonmarket strategy in China

Nonmarket strategy may have positive influences on a firm’s performance. How does nonmarket strategy influence a firm’s performance? This article addresses this important question by introducing two mediators: corporate social performance and adaptive capability. The empirical results based on a survey of 438 usable questionnaires from China indicate that “buffering” and “bridging,” being two kinds of nonmarket strategies, have a positive impact on a firm’s economic performance through enhancing its social performance and adaptive capability. The article not only documents the positive effect of nonmarket strategy on firm performance in emerging economies such as China, but also explains the indirect relationship between nonmarket strategy and economic performance, which generates both theoretical and practical implications.     

Economics at the FTC: Quantitative Analyses of Two Chemical Manufacturing Mergers

Review of Industrial Organization - Economists at the Federal Trade Commission support the agency’s competition and consumer protection missions in numerous ways. In this article, we discuss...     

An Oligopoly Model for Analyzing and Evaluating (Re)-Assignments of Spectrum Licenses

The Communications Act requires the Federal Communications Commission to assess whether proposed spectrum license transactions serve the public interest, convenience, and necessity. We review the FCC’s implementation of this component of the Act. We provide a tractable economic model of competition among wireless service providers in which spectrum licenses are a cost-reducing input. This model allows us to evaluate the effects of (re-)assigning spectrum licenses on economic outcomes and to define operational measures of “warehousing” licenses. Calibrating the model, we find little evidence of warehousing and that the approved Verizon-T-Mobile-SpectrumCo transaction increased social surplus.     

产出节制型低碳经济发展方式的经济学思考

本文以经济学基本假设为出发点,深入剖析低碳经济的经济学内涵。研究发现只有投入约束的经济模式在低碳经济时代是行不通的,必须通过产出约束对碳排放的影响进行控制与调节。文章在时间和空间多维度下提出建立产出节制型低碳经济发展方式,在此基础上,进一步演绎了关于个体理性与集体理性、公平与均衡的经济学理念。     

Economic Geography and Business Networks: Creating a Dialogue between Disciplines: An Introduction to the Special Issue

This introductory article presents an outline of the papers accepted for this special issue. The Guest Editors provide an overview of the work within industrial marketing where synthesis between economic geography and industrial marketing literature has occurred. A discussion of the most synthesised areas of economic geography is advanced and each article is then discussed, compared and contrasted with other articles in the special issue and with articles within industrial marketing that have previously synthesized concepts drawn from economic geography. Within this narrative, the Guest Editor’s propose an agenda for future interdisciplinary research at what they refer to as the ‘nexus of interest’ between the disciplines.     

On strategic networks

In parallel with a theoretical acceptance of the importance of the laws of competition to formulate strategy, the realization is growing that cooperative behavior among firms is at the root of many success stories in today's management. This situation calls for an effort to develop a theoretical framework to study both aspects of firm behavior (cooperative and competitive) as compatible, complementary aspects of a unique reality. Indeed, the cooperative relationships of a firm can be the source of its competitive strength. This paper develops the concept of strategic network, as a tool to understand those cooperative relationships and their role in the strategy of the firm. There are three main tasks of the paper: first, to show that strategic networks are but a ‘mode of organization’; second, to study the economic conditions of existence of a network; finally, to analyze the conditions of existence of a network from the point of view of its internal consistency. In a final section some of the most obvious strategic implications of the framework are outlined.     

Recent Developments at DG Competition: 2017/2018

The Directorate General for Competition at the European Commission enforces competition law in the areas of antitrust, merger control, and state aids. This year’s article provides first a general presentation of the role of the Chief Competition Economist’s team and surveys some of the main achievements of the Directorate General for Competition over 2017/2018. The article then reviews: the Google Search (Shopping) case, the role of price discrimination in state aid cases; and the use of counterfactuals in merger cases where alternative transactions might have occurred absent the merger.     

Contestability and creative destruction: Two approaches to monopoly

The theory of contestability ’attempts to base a model of economic efficiency on oligopolistic markets, thereby justifying adoption of laissez-faire policies in the absence of atomistic competition. The analysis is similar to Schumpeter’s condemnation of government intervention in the theory of creative destruction: both theories claim that superior economic performance is associated with concentrated rather than competitive market structures. Yet in many respects the contestability analysis is less convincing than Schumpeter’s. Whereas Schumpeter admitted the existence of short rum profits and restrictive strategies, arguing that these inefficiencies, are outweighed in the long run, the theory of contestable markets is based on short run efficiency and cannot accommodate evidence of excess profits nor many of the existing models of oligopolistic strategies, including collusion and predatory pricing. Furthermore, the theory lacks a logical explanation of investment, by entrants and convincing empirical support for its claim that concentrated markets maximize consumer welfare.     

经济增长、能源结构与工业污染——基于空间面板计量实证研究

本文基于环境EKC曲线理论,采用2002～2013年中国31个省际的面板数据,运用空间数据分析方法对经济增长、能源结构与工业污染的空间分布格局相关性进行研究。进一步运用空间计量方法,研究经济增长、能源结构对工业污染的空间效应。研究结果发现：经济增长、能源结构与工业污染存在空间相关性,并在空间分布上存在明显的“路径依赖”特征并形成了不同集聚区域。经济增长、能源结构对工业污染的空间影响效应明显,经济增长与工业污染呈现EKC曲线假设的倒“U”形关系,能源结构与工业污染呈现正向相关关系。最后在实证结果的基础上提出相关建议。     

How will telecommunications bundles impact competition and regulatory analysis?

In this article, one makes two points about the impact of bundles on competition and regulatory policy. First, one argues that the growing importance of bundles requires an adjustment in the current framework of relevant product markets for individual services, and that the traditional tools of competition policy, namely the SSNIP test, can be adjusted to deal with these new circumstances. Second, one argues that the technological and behavioral changes, underlying the emergence of bundles, call for a shift of emphasis in regulatory policy from ensuring access to the incumbent’s fixed telecommunications network services to ensuring access to television content.     

对中国石油工业经济发展的几点认识

2010年12月16日,《中国石油工业经济若干问题回顾与思考》首发式在北京举行。这本书由中国三大石油公司支持和指导,百余位专家参加编写。它不仅记述了60年来中国石油工业经济发展的历程、重大决策、石油工业领导机关和重点企业在各个发展阶段的主要经济思想、重要经济事件和管理创新的实践与探索,而且基于对长期实践经验的总结和思考,形成了一些规律性的认识,有助于从经济角度探索具有中国特色的石油工业经济发展之路,可以为新时期中国石油工业的可持续发展提供借鉴。为了与读者分享本书的研究成果,从本期开始,本刊将连续选登书中的部分研究性成果。这部书分为综合篇、体制政策篇、陆上油气篇、海洋石油篇、炼油乙烯篇和数据图表篇。本期刊登的内容选自综合篇第三章。这一章总结了新中国成立以来石油工业经济发展的基本经验,提出了"六个坚持",即坚持把油气资源勘探放在首位,实现储量持续增长和战略接替;坚持正确的发展战略,促进石油工业与国民经济协调发展;坚持合理的经济政策,促进石油工业持续发展;坚持集中力量办大事的经验,提高石油工业的效率和效益;坚持处理好国家、企业、职工的关系,增强石油工业发展的生命力;坚持发扬优良传统,永葆石油工业基业长青。     

在联营体基础上实施建筑企业虚拟化组织模式创新

世界经济一体化和信息技术改革在给建筑业带来空前竞争压力的同时，也必将引发一场轰轰烈烈的行业革命。本结合建筑业的行业特点，借鉴虚拟企业的思想方法，提出在联营体应用实践的基础上实现建筑企业从联营到虚拟化经营的转变，完成建筑企业组织模式创新，从而改变建筑业过度竞争以及低收益的现状。这将使建筑企业既能分享世界经济一体化带来的好处，又能够化解当前的竞争压力，提高自身竞争力，有效应对知识经济带来的挑战。     

Dis-harmony in European Natural Gas Market(s)—Discussion of Standards and Definitions

The European Union attempts to harmonise the European natural gas market(s). In general, this is supported on national levels. Nevertheless, such harmonisation is not yet fully accomplished: neither for the rules nor for the quality specifications nor for the physical quantities and their units. Even if the current economic impact of such dis-harmony is negligible, i.e. that market participants for the time being do not have to bear additional costs caused by the lack of harmonisation, participants in the commodity market are exposed to contractual risks. Potentially, this might lead to reduced competition and reduced liquidity of each single and the European internal market for natural gas. However, as the costs for a potential harmonisation of European gas markets are estimated to be significant, the dilemma is evident and the ‘political’ solution of the ‘harmonisation problem’ will necessarily deviate from the traders’ one.     

Vertical Restraints,the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Sylvania</Emphasis> Case,and China’s Antitrust Enforcement

We briefly review the relevant economic theories and legal treatment of vertical restraints, and especially focus on the 1977 landmark case of Sylvania and its possible influence on China’s antitrust enforcement on vertical restraints. China’s competition policy, and particularly its antimonopoly law, does not explicitly instruct with respect to the enforcement approach (per se versus rule of reason) toward vertical restraints. But from an overview of China’s recent antitrust cases, we find that there is a division in the approaches taken by public versus private enforcement: Even though the administrative enforcement is more inclined to the application of per se prohibitions (or the application of the EU-style prohibition-plus-exemption approach), it seems that a rule of reason is the (increasingly) prevailing approach that is taken by the courts.     

Labour Market Dualism and Diversification in Japan

The Japanese labour market has been regarded as ‘dualistic’ in terms of employment status (regular vs non‐regular). While it is true, this perspective misses recent changes in regular employment in terms of labour flexibility. The government has attempted labour market deregulation since the 1990s to increase the flexibility of not only non‐regular but also regular employment, and the labour market has become more diversified. Labour unions lack power resources to resist these neoliberal changes, however, because of their insufficient access to policy‐making, low union density and a lack of solidarity against the background of economic stagnation and competition under globalization.     

Cable television and competition : Theory, evidence and policy

There is currently widespread discussion in the USA of the merits of amending legislation to allow competition in the cable television market, notably from the telecommunications companies. This article explores what economic theory can contribute to this debate, and adduces empirical evidence on the effects of competition in the cable market where it presently exists. The authors conclude that blocking entry into cable, and indeed into telecommunications markets, is likely to be poor policy, and that increased competition would foster the development of an efficient modern broadband network.     

Competition and innovation in telecommunications: An empirical analysis of innovative telecommunications in the public interest

According to current opinion, competition in telecommunications stimulates innovation. However, there are reasons to believe that at least in some circumstances competition might lead to a decrease in product innovation. In this paper a cross-sectional statistical analysis is carried out on data for the OECD countries. A positive correlation is indeed found between competition and innovation. However, the level of economic development is an important mediating variable. The economies of emerging technologies in the local loop lead to the conclusion that especially in the mobile segment competition will stimulate innovation.