Publication records

Summary of results from the 2007 Consolidation Impact Survey. The survey covers four industries that are most affected from consolidation trends in Germany: Aviation, Utilities, Telecoms and Banking.

This study analyses the relationship between entry regulation and infrastructure investment in the telecommunication sector. The empirical analysis we conduct is based on a comprehensive data set covering 180 fixed-line and mobile operators in 25 European countries over 10 years and employs a newly created indicator measuring regulatory intensity in the European countries. We carefully treat the endogeneity problem of regulation by applying instrumental variables and find that tough entry regulation (e.g. unbundling) discourages infrastructure investment by entrants but has no effect on incumbents in fixed-line telecommunications. We do not find significant impact of entry regulation on investment in mobile telephony.

While markets internationalize and at the same time consolidate, companies have to ask themselves if they can develop to one of the market leaders in this broader international market. To give guidance to this question, the business brief introduces the concept of the consolidation index as a framework for developing and validating strategies in this regard and discusses the results of the consolidation index for the European banking and utilities industry.

Der Abstieg erfolgte vergleichsweise unspektakulär, aber nachhaltig: Noch zu Beginn der neunziger Jahre war die Deutsche Bank gemessen an der Marktkapitalisierung die größte europäische Bank und gehörte zu den zehn größten Banken weltweit. Seither haben sich die Relationen grundlegend verschoben: In allen großen europäischen Ländern gibt es inzwischen jeweils mindestens zwei Banken, die eine größere Marktkapitalisierung aufweisen, als die Deutsche Bank. Damit stellt sich die Frage, welche Rückschlüsse für die, neben den in Deutschland dominierenden Volksbanken und Sparkassen, börsennotierten privaten Banken zu ziehen sind.

Auf den ersten Blick erscheint es paradox: Kreditausfälle im US-Immobilienmarkt führen zur Existenzkrise von zwei deutschen, im nationalen Geschäft verwurzelten Instituten. Selbst wenn noch nicht sämtliche Einzelheiten der aktuellen Krise im Bankgeschäft bekannt sind, können erste Ansätze zur notwendigen Aufarbeitung und Ableitung eines künftigen Marktszenarios vorgenommen werden.

At first glance it seems paradoxical: Loan defaults in the U.S. real estate market threaten the viability of two major German financial institutions-both with deep national roots. But although the full extent of the current banking crisis remains yet unknown, the first steps toward a critical reappraisal of future market scenarios can begin now.

This paper investigates the role of exploitative abuse under Article 82. Unlike exclusionary practices, there is relatively little economic commentary on the proper role of exploitative abuses in competition policy, even though the legal perspective in Europe has consistently emphasized the importance of enforcing antitrust action in the arena of exploitative practices. In this paper I will address the following two questions: what are the effects of antitrust action against exploitative conduct? and when to take antitrust action against exploitative abuses?