Drawing from the most recent work on economic regulation, this book introduces readers to the main principles and examines how economic regulation is applied in four key public utility industries - electricity, gas, water and telecommunications. Written for students and practitioners with little prior knowledge of economic regulation, this is an accessible, non-technical entry point to the subject area, exploring the fundamental questions: Why do we regulate? What are alternatives to regul...

'Managing Cultural Diversity in Technical Professions' provides managers of technical professionals with clear and tested strategies to improve communication and increase productivity among culturally diverse technical professionals, teams, and departments.Dr. Laroche outlines the differences in education and training, career expectations, communication styles, and management expectations in countries around the world. He explains cross-cultural concepts and presents his case for t...

This book addresses the recent debate about copyright law and its impact on the distribution of scientific knowledge from an economic perspective. The focus is on the question whether a copyright regime or an open access regime is better suited to the norms and organizational structure in a purely global science community. The book undertakes a thorough economic analysis of the academic journal market and showcases consequences of a regime change. It also takes account of the Digital Divid...

This contributed volume focuses on competition policy enforcement in BRICS and developing counties. It examines the role and application of economic analysis and evidence in law enforcement procedures, as well as their influence on competition authorities’ policy-making. The contributors also address topics such as recent developments in competition law and practice, institutional design, indicators of performance in enforcement, the incorporation of public interest concerns in Competition...

This book examines the relationship between regulation and market integration, with a special focus on China. It pursues a Law and Economics and Comparative Law approach (China and EU) to analyze the current obstacles to market integration and domestic economic growth in China. Topics covered at the national level include competition law, public procurement rules and financial regulation. At the regional and local level, this book addresses questions related to administrative monopolies, s...

The book presents theoretical and empirical research on the integrated assessment of cartels’ effects on national economies. The empirical analysis is based on three cases in Lithuania, a country chosen because it corresponds to the features of a small economy with a developing culture of competition. An integrated assessment of a cartel’s impact by measuring the net economic effect created by its operations on the market is extremely important at the scale of national economies. If a cart...

The theoretical basis of commercial law, corporate governance law, and corporate law is still unsatisfactory. There essentially is no theory of commercial law, and existing theories of corporate governance and corporate law cannot explain the behaviour of firms or the contents of existing regulation. This book proposes a coordinated solution for all three areas. The starting point is that all three areas deal with the organisation of firms. Commercial law, corporate governance, and corpora...

In the last two decades, multinational companies (MNCs) and global union federations (GUFs) have started to negotiate so-called global framework agreements (GFAs) which define minimum standards for labor conditions across their locations. This book focuses on the question why companies conclude GFAs, and identifies four groups of incentives: reduction and privatization of conflicts; public relations; promotion of equal competitive conditions; exogenous requirements and avoidance of public ...

The most controversial area in competition policy is that of exclusionary practices, where actions are taken by dominant firms to deter competitors from challenging their market positions. Economists have been struggling to explain such conduct and to guide policy-makers in designing sensible enforcement rules. In this book, authors Chiara Fumagalli, Massimo Motta, and Claudio Calcagno explore predatory pricing, rebates, exclusive dealing, tying, and vertical foreclosure, through a blend o...

Foreword The first essay in Volker Simmering's study in The Evolution of Standards, undertaken while at the Graduate Programme in Law and Economics in cooperation with the Institute of SocioEconomics at the University of Hamburg, examines the effects of "globalization" on the evolution of global standard(). The central result of this essay is that there may be too few global standards and those which do evolve are not necessarily efficient; a result that is at odds with standard economic r...

Competition law regulates anti-competitive conduct by companies in order to maintain market competition. Cartel law can also cause restraints of competition and therefore, the existing regulations should be checked, revised and updated regularly. This book deals with the prohibition of Resale Price Maintenance, which is intensively discussed in Germany at the moment. It provides a new interdisciplinary approach to the topic that emphasizes the empirically observable marketing perspective, ...

This publication provides an unparalleled comparative analysis of two "hot topics" in the field of antitrust and unfair competition laws with regard to a number of key countries.The first part of the book examines whether small and middle-sized businesses could or should be subject to specific competition rules. These businesses account for 99% of the enterprises in Europe and the United States, making this a particularly important topic. The papers consider both the public and pri...