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We render operational the model outlined by Carter (1990) via the introduction of the research methods necessary for studying the spatial and sectoral (upstream and downstream) benefits of productivity-enhancing innovations within a real interregional input–output framework. As case study we examine the reduction in production costs derived from the adoption of longer and heavier vehicles in freight road transportation. We exploit a new Spanish regional table including a detailed disaggregation of the transportation sector. The productivity gains at the national level, resulting from a 30% reduction in transport costs, amount to 2.95% of the GVA at market prices. Results show that firms operating in this niche market appropriate most of the gross operation surplus (which increases by 10%), consistent with the existence of market power. The remaining transportation sectors see profits slightly worsened, suggesting limited substitution effects. A high regional heterogeneity exists because of the different input–output structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article summarises the recent decisions published by the Spanish Competition Authority regarding abuse of dominant position in the pharmaceutical sector. Even though these are rare infringements, they result from the special responsibility of a dominant pharmaceutical company in a key moment for competition law: when its exclusive right over the patent or the orphan drug is coming to a close. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Romanian Journal of Intellectual Property Law / Revista Română de Dreptul Proprietăţii Intelectuale is the property of Universul Juridic Publishing House and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The dairy processing industry is the largest subsector in the EU food industry and is characterised by high concentration. We investigate the extent of output market power exerted in EU dairy processing, applying an advanced stochastic frontier approach to estimate firm‐level markups of price over marginal cost using data for France, Italy and Spain from 2008 to 2017. We further relate markups to firm characteristics to identify what type of dairy processors possess the highest power in the sector. Our findings only reveal small average deviations from perfect competition but we find considerable heterogeneity of markups within and between the three countries. We identify a strong positive relationship between markup and profitability, though we find firm size and markups to be inversely related. This indicates that small firms operating in differentiated niche markets are able to charge higher markups, thereby ensuring their profitability. This result can serve EU dairy processors for future strategic alignment, and is particularly interesting from a policy perspective as large firms are mostly blamed in the exercise of market power in public and policy debates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores possible impact of the SSM's launch on the market power of banks in the large euro area economies. We employ the Lerner index and the Boone estimator, non‐structural measures that capture different aspects of competition. Using the results of the Lerner index, we find evidence of the significant decrease in market power for the ECB supervised entities in Austria, France, Germany and Spain. In a similar vein, the Boone indicator points towards an increase in competition among significant supervised entities of Austria, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. The evidence on changes for the total banking sector are mixed, whereas no significant effect is found for the banks remaining under national supervision. We do not find any support for significant increases in the market power of banks in Italy or Spain, suggesting that large increases in concentration do not necessarily result in anticompetitive conduct. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent literature documents a secular increase in the sales-weighted average markup in the United States, a phenomenon that was driven by large and productive firms at the top of the profit distribution. Using rich administrative balance-sheet data, this paper documents the behaviour of markups in Spain before, during, and in the aftermath of the Great Recession. We show that markups rose during the financial crisis. Unlike in the U.S., these dynamics were driven by small and unproductive firms following an increase in their average costs due to a high and increasing share of fixed costs, especially overhead labour expenses. Despite the rise in markups, profit rates fell, especially amongst smaller firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ECN+ implementation, ECN+ Directive, Directive (EU) 2019/1, fundamental rights, NCA independence, NCA resources, fines, leniency Government approval is currently required to change the structure of the CNMC, its organisational chart, up to the general sub-directorate level, which is not operational and has prevented, for example, conferring the appropriate status to relevant units of the CNMC such as the Competition Promotion Directorate or the new Economic Intelligence Unit. Keywords: ECN+ implementation; ECN+ Directive; Directive (EU) 2019/1; fundamental rights; NCA independence; NCA resources; fines; leniency EN ECN+ implementation ECN+ Directive Directive (EU) 2019/1 fundamental rights NCA independence NCA resources fines leniency 321 324 4 08/18/21 20210701 NES 210701 I. Introduction In order to prepare the transposition of Directive (EU) 1/2019 (the ECN+ Directive or the Directive) in Spain, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation began working on the matter together with other relevant actors, such as the Spanish Competition Authority (the National Markets and Competition Commission, CNMC). [Extracted from the article]

On 20 April 2021, the Spanish Competition Authority (the "CNMC") issued two resolutions of great importance for the pharmaceutical sector. In particular for innovative laboratories that have been have been targeted by the Spanish and European Competition Authorities for several years now. In both resolutions, two pharmaceutical companies, AbbVie and AstraZeneca, were suspected of having abused their alleged dominant position - in the first case by offering exclusionary discounts and, in the second, by setting predatory prices - both with the aim of preventing competitors from entering the market after the lapse of their respective patents. The CNMC concluded, in both cases, not to initiate sanctioning proceedings. At the same time, the CNMC provided long overdue clarifications and guidance on certain key issues: (i) the use of "effective clinical practice" and therapeutic guides in the definition of relevant markets, (ii) the dynamic analysis of market shares and (iii) the explicit acceptance of the "meeting competition" defence when ruling out an abuse of dominant position. Therefore, these rulings set two precedents of notable importance on the application of antitrust rules in the pharmaceutical sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper analyzes the effects on local suppliers of the adoption of a modular platform, taking into account different supply-chain relations. Design/methodology/approach: The authors' research follows an interpretive case study methodology based on a theoretical approach that seeks to validate the approach while making conclusions about the case study. Findings: The traditional pyramidal structure of automotive supply chains has been altered by the consolidation of a much more complex structure, mostly in spatial and geographical terms. The authors find a strong hierarchy resulting from the reinforced market power of the carmaker under study and the respective fragile structural positioning of logistics companies and pre-assemblers. The increased versatility of the assembly plant, considered a consequence of its transition to modular platforms, finds a counterpart in the necessary re-configuration of certain supply relationships. Originality/value: The main contribution of the paper is to connect the defining elements of supply-chain relations with those technical and organizational changes associated with the transition to modular platforms, as well as to analyze changes in the pyramidal structure of the supply chain, from both a spatial and relational perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Iberian Market for Electricity resulted from a cooperation process developed by the Portuguese and Spanish administrations, aiming to promote the integration of the electrical systems of both countries. This common market consists of organised markets or power exchanges, and non-organised markets where bilateral over-the-counter trading takes place with or without brokers. Within this scenario, electricity price forecasts have become fundamental to the process of decision-making and strategy development by market participants. The unique characteristics of electricity prices such as non-stationarity, non-linearity and high volatility make this task very difficult. For this reason, instead of a simple time forecast, market participants are more interested in a causal forecast that is essential to estimate the uncertainty involved in the price. This work focuses on modelling the impact of various explanatory variables on the electricity price through a multiple linear regression analysis. The quality of the estimated models obtained validates the use of statistical or causal methods, such as the Multiple Linear Regression Model, as a plausible strategy to achieve causal forecasts of electricity prices in medium and long-term electricity price forecasting. From the evaluation of the electricity price forecasting for Portugal and Spain, in the year of 2017, the mean absolute percentage errors (MAPE) were 9.02% and 12.02%, respectively. In 2018, the MAPE, evaluated for 9 months, for Portugal and Spain equals 7.12% and 6.45%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is an environmentally-friendly source of energy and has an important position, particularly in the residential sector and in transport worldwide. In Spain, however, this once-promising industry now has no clear future and has to struggle to survive. In this article, we analyze the recent evolution of the Spanish LPG industry looking for, from a perspective of competitive analysis, an explanation for the current situation that the sector is going through. The analysis developed in this study shows more threats than opportunities, and highlights the uncertainty about the future of the sector if no major changes in the regulatory policy are adopted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Economía Aplicada is the property of Revista de Economia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the last years the electricity industry has faced a restructuring process. Among the aims of this process was the increase in competition, especially in the generation activity where firms would have an incentive to become more efficient. However, the competitive behavior of generating firms might jeopardize the expected benefits of the electricity industry liberalization. The present paper proposes a conjectural variations model to study the competitive behavior of generating firms acting in liberalized electricity markets. The model computes a parameter that represents the degree of competition of each generating firm in each trading period. In this regard, the proposed model provides a powerful methodology for regulatory and competition authorities to monitor the competitive behavior of generating firms. As an application of the model, a study of the day-ahead Iberian electricity market (MIBEL) was conducted to analyze the impact of the integration of the Portuguese and Spanish electricity markets on the behavior of generating firms taking into account the hourly results of the months of June and July of 2007. The advantages of the proposed methodology over other methodologies used to address market power, namely Residual Supply index and Lerner index are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Galician Journal of Economics / Revista Galega de Economía is the property of Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Servicio de Publicaciones and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Our study examines how, in a given industry, rivalry functions within strategic groups defined according to the size of their member firms and how this rivalry affects performance. We hypothesize that, owing to several forms of group-level effects including market power, efficiency, differentiation, and multimarket contact, strategic groups that comprise smaller firms will exhibit both increased rivalry and decreased performance compared with strategic groups that comprise larger firms. We test our hypotheses by estimating the effect of group-level strategic interactions (i.e., conjectural variations) on firm performance. Ultimately, our analysis of empirical data on loans in the Spanish banking industry demonstrates that increased rivalry and decreased performance indeed characterizes firms belonging to a strategic group that comprises smaller firms. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how the use of collateral (formal contracting), along with the market power of banks (which facilitates relational contracts), affects the availability of credit for business firms. Using loan data from the Spanish Credit Register, we show that the average credit quality of borrowers in a provincial market decreases with market concentration and the availability of collateral. Additionally, the marginal effect of each variable decreases with the higher values of the other variable. We also find that credit line interest rates increase with the availability of collateral, although the increase is lower for banks operating in more concentrated credit markets. Therefore, market power (relations) and collateral (formal contracting) act as substitutes to increase the availability of bank finance under asymmetric information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study not only establishes that the institutional changes (the change of political regime) and economic changes (the energy crisis) that occurred during the 70s and 80s had an important effect on business strategies within the Spanish electricity sector, but, above all, it shows how the resulting regulatory model was not the product of any clearly defined plan on the part of the Spanish authorities (as the majority of authors seem to implicitly or explicitly maintain), but rather it arose from the dialectical interaction between companies which resisted losing the power of the market, and institutions which, in order to define any medium term energy policy in the future European domestic electricity market, required an increase in their regulatory power. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Hourly data from the Spanish day-ahead electricity auction is used to obtain a lower bound measure of generators’ market power. Our method is not based on cost estimates but rather on the behavioral differences between strategic generators and more competitive producers. The results indicate that, despite the price cap effect of regulation in this market, the larger operators in the day-ahead market are able to increase significantly prices above the competitive benchmark. We also show that the two large generators do not exploit the full potential of their market power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents commentary on the act of market power substitution in the context of Spanish legal codes. The authors explores the difference between general power and power conceived on general terms, and notarial activity regarding the sale of property. Various Spanish legal resolutions relating to facility substitution are transcribed.

El artículo analiza regulaciones y sentencias en Derecho de la Competencia de la Unión Europea (UE) y España emitidas entre noviembre 2006 y diciembre 2009. Se incluyen el marco para la aplicación del artículo 82 del Tratado de la Comunidad Europea en casos de abuso por parte de empresas en posición de dominio, lineamientos para concentraciones no horizontales y sentencia del Tribunal Supremo de España contra la Empresa de Transformación Agraria, S.A.

Copyright of International Journal of Maritime History is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper studies the cost structure and market power of 18 Spanish food industries, at roughly the three-digit level, for the period 1978-1992. Tests of capital equilibrium and approaches to estimation of the Lerner index are developed. Long-run equilibrium is rejected for almost all industries. It is argued that, in general, economies of scale and market power are not jointly identifiable in the structural analysis, with similar problems as in non-structural approaches. Moreover, when long-run equilibrium and constant returns to scale are assumed, the econometric estimates of the Lerner index are similar to those obtained with the traditional profit-to-sales ratio, irrespective of whether capital is a quasi-fixed or a variable input. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

• Formulates a model for market equilibrium among producers and prosumers. • Converted into an equivalent optimization model through its KKT conditions. • Analyzes a Spain-like case study for the period 2019–2037. • Results show possible prosumer response to tariff structure. • Having different objective functions shows an example of incentive misalignment. Power systems will face important structural changes in the near future due to the empowerment of consumers, who may resort on self-consumption, and reduce their purchases of electricity from the grid. The avoided costs of purchasing energy, as compared to the investment costs of installing their own self-generation capacity, could be one of the drivers of the consumers' decision making. The system expansion will therefore result from the interaction of the traditional market agents, maximizing their profits by investing in and operating centralized generation assets, and the new active consumers, minimizing their expenses while meeting their energy needs. This paper presents a Nash equilibrium model that considers centralized and behind-the-meter distributed generation expansion, by representing the operation and investments decisions of both types of agents with their own conceptually different strategies. To simplify the resolution, the equilibrium model is transformed into an equivalent minimization problem from its Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions. The model application to Spain-like system case example allows to assess the impact of the network access-tariff (whether being mainly volumetric-based or power-based) and the impact of the big industrial market power on the generation expansion, for the time horizon 2019-2037. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]