June 14-15 2007: Masterclass with Mike Walker

More information will be available soon.

 

ENCORE Summer School 2006 on

  “Competition Law Enforcement” Instructor: Vivek Ghosal, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA
Dates: Thursday August 31 and Friday September 1 2006
Venue: De Burcht van Berlage (Vakbondsmuseum), Henri Polaklaan 9, Amsterdam

 

This specialized and intensive two-day course concentrates on aspects of competition law enforcement in selected countries and regions - primarily US and EU, but also others - taking an empirical perspective.

 

The course will start by laying a foundation for regime comparisons that draw on the underlying laws and principles of competition policy, as well as the recent economics literature in the field. Against this background, the first part of the course will present broader trends and patterns of antitrust enforcement, mapping out statistics of enforcement actions in specific categories such as monopolization, abuse of dominance, and coordinated actions.

 

Some of the econometric techniques needed to understand this literature are introduced and discussed at the graduate level. Specific cases from different industries in different jurisdictions will be discussed. These will be designed to highlight issues related to product and geographic market definition, identifying anti-competitive behaviour of firms, and changing views of competition authorities and courts.

 

The latter part of the course will provide some insights into how competition policy concepts and framework may have much to offer in terms of making regulations less damaging to competition in the markets. It will also briefly outline situations where collaboration between competition authorities and regulatory authorities can yield significant dividends.

 

Parts of the course will be hands-on in the sense that a rough sketch of some competition cases will be provided and the class will discuss how best to structure an investigation. This will be followed by a discussion of how the competition authority went about conducting the investigation. Similarly, selected regulations will be described and the class will discuss how best to assess the competition concerns.

 

Targeted Audience

 

The contents will be targeted at the general audience - economists, competition lawyers and policymakers - interested in competition policy and its enforcement. Although relatively non-technical, included in the discussions will be the broad theoretical framework to gain an understanding of the various types of conduct and their anti-competitive consequences and presentation of facts and figures and some legal issues. Apart from informative, the course will therefore be a rich source of research ideas for PhD students in economics and law & economics scholars as well.

 

Professor Ghosal

 

Before joining the faculty at Georgia Tech as an Associate Professor in 2001, he worked as an economist in the Antitrust Division (U.S. Department of Justice), in particular on issues related to mergers, horizontal and vertical market power, tying agreements, joint ventures and cross-subsidization.

 

Prof. Ghosal’s current areas of research and teaching at Georgia Tech include: the political economy of antitrust and regulation; innovation strategy in the automobile industry; causes and consequences of merger waves in the U.S. industries; innovation and M&As in the pulp and paper industry; and the impact of uncertainty and sunk costs on industry dynamics.
More information about his research can be found here.

 

 

Venue

 

Amsterdam, de Burcht van Berlage (Vakbondsmuseum), Henri Polaklaan 9. It is a beautiful building designed by architect Berlage and completed in 1900 and situated near the Faculty of Economics, University of Amsterdam, opposite Artis Zoo.

 

Costs

 

The costs per participant are €600,-.*

This fee includes study materials, lunch, refreshments during the day and dinner on Thursday night. 

 

 

* There is a limited number of partial fee waivers available for selected PhD's. Please specify on the registration form in the "remarks"-field if you believe you are eligible for a reduced fee.

 

 

 

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