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La concurrence, notion centrale dans le domaine de l'économie, est ici envisagée dans le monde de la création littéraire et artistique. Est-il pertinent de la placer au cœur du processus de création? La concurrence est-elle un moteur de la créativité ou un frein? Ce volume croise les regards de plusieurs disciplines (sociologie, histoire, études littéraires, arts du spectacle...). Une quinzaine de chercheurs analysent ainsi les œuvres et les discours comme insérés dans un ensemble de productions qui les précèdent, les accompagnent et les modèlent.

Prenant en compte les nouvelles théories de l'économie géographique, cet ouvrage insiste sur l'organisation des pôles de compétitivité, sur la métropolisation et sur leurs interactions spatiales à différents niveaux de développement. Il s'intéresse également aux politiques environnementales et à la transition écologique des villes, afin d'éclairer ce qui lie phénomènes économiques et écologiques.

This volume contains a selection of papers that were presented at the CRESSE Conferences held in Chania, Crete, from July 6th to 8th, 2012, and in Corfu from July 5th to 7th, 2013. The chapters address current policy issues in competition and regulation. The book contains contributions at the frontier of competition economics and regulation and provides perspectives on recent research findings in the field. Written by experts in their respective fields, the book brings together current thinking on market forces at play in imperfectly competitive industries, how firms use anti-competitive practices to their advantage and how competition policy and regulation can address market failures. It provides an in-depth analysis of various ongoing debates and offers fresh insights in terms of conceptual understanding, empirical findings and policy implications. The book contributes to our understanding of imperfectly competitive markets, anti-competitive practices and competition policy and regulation.

Worldwide, postal and delivery economics is the subject of considerable interest. The postal industry's business model is in drastic need of change. Notably, the European Commission and member states are still wrestling with the problems of implementing liberalization of entry into postal markets, addressing digital competition, and maintaining the universal service obligation. In the United States, the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 has, perhaps, exacerbated some of the problems faced by the United States Postal Service (USPS). Currently, the USPS has serious financial problems because of difficulties it faces in making changes and the failure of the Act to address problems that have been long-standing. Electronic competition is severe and affects post offices (POs) worldwide, which have been slow to address the threat. This book addresses this new reality and includes discussion of how POs may attempt to reinvent themselves. Parcels and packets will play a major role in developing new business models for postal operators. This book is of use not only to students and researchers interested in the field, but also to postal operators, consulting firms, utilities, regulatory commissions, Federal Government Departments and agencies of the European Union and other countries.

Analysen des Zusammenhangs von unvollständigem Wettbewerb und der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung stoßen in den letzten Jahren wieder auf zunehmendes Interesse. Mit diesem Band werden sowohl eine Bestandsaufnahme zum Stand der Forschung durchgeführt, als auch für den deutschen Sprachraum neue erfolgversprechende Ansätze vorgestellt. Die wechselseitigen Zusammenhänge zwischen Preisen, Löhnen, Output, Produktionsmengen, Innovationen und Marktstruktur, werden von verschiedenen Standpunkten aus beleuchtet und kontrovers diskutiert. Der theoretisch interessierte Leser wird insbesondere an einigen neuen Modellierungsvorschlägen Gefallen finden. Auch für den an empirischen Fakten Interessierten hält das Buch mehrere innovative Beiträge bereit. Schließlich wendet sich das Buch auch an Leser mit einem ausgeprägten wirtschafts- und wettbewerbspolitischen Hintergrund. Das Buch präsentiert einen gelungenen Querschnitt über Überblicksartikel und originäre Forschungsbeiträge, die in ihrer Summe einen guten Einstieg in die immer bedeutendere volkswirtschaftliche Teildisziplin der Industrieökonomik bieten.

The main thrust of Part 1 is to give some understanding of the concept of ‘global competition'. In doing so, the chapters rely heavily on industrial studies. Part 2 deals with two different aspects of this change viewed from two different perspectives. The one is economic and more macro: the other political and social and more micro, being concerned with the way in which companies have to utilize their various organisational units and integrate information on a fragmented environment into a strategic whole. Part 3 deals specifically with technology, as the particular segment of the environment which often has the largest impact on future strategies. In Part 4 the perspective of global competition is applied at industry, country and company levels and it is shown that this perspective adds new dimensions to old problems. The final parts address the problem of management in global competition.

Market Evolution: Competition and Cooperation is a selection of papers presented at the recent meeting of the European Association of Research in Industrial Economics (EARIE). The volume brings together twenty high-quality papers reflecting frontier research in modern industrial organization. The contributions cover a broad spectrum of increasing theoretical, empirical and policy issues, including analyses of the nature of the firm, product differentiation, research and development, strategic alliances, information sharing in the banking sector, exchange rate pass-through in international competition, labor unionization and product rivalry, buyer-supplier bargaining, multimarket competition and related entry, entry and exit processes, multinational enterprises in the Third World, European integration and the restructuring of Eastern Europe. From a theoretical perspective, many chapters apply game theory to the analysis of firm behaviors and market competition. Moreover, a large number of the studies contain a significant empirical part, mainly by employing econometric techniques, to test the hypotheses derived from modern industrial organization theories. Data from Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the European Union are presented and analyzed.

Several interesting results on the economics of industrial districts are collected in this book. The first part investigates over internal determinants of industrial district competitiveness looking at internal productivity, at patterns of innovation and at those factors which create a favorable industrial atmosphere. The second part of the book investigates over foreign competitiveness of industrial districts focusing on the performance of export and of other forms of internationalisation.

Competitive Transformation of the Postal and Delivery Sector is an indispensable source of information and analysis on the current state of the postal and delivery sector. It offers current insights of leading researchers and practitioners into strategy and regulation as well as the economics of this sector. Issues addressed include national and international perspectives, financial viability, the universal service obligation, regulation, competition, entry, the role of scale and scope economies, the nature and role of cost and demand analysis in postal service, productivity, interaction of law and economics, human resources, transition and reform issues. The papers in the book were selected from the papers presented at the 11th Conference on Postal and Delivery Economics, Toledo, Spain, June 4-7, 2003.

GIULIANO MUSSATI Why do mergers occur, which are their effects on social welfare and which is the best economic policy toward them? These three questions have been puzzling industrial economists since the end of the last century when the first great merger wave has come about in the US. They have returned at the centre of the stage of the theoretical and empirical economic research during the last decade when merger and acquisition activity became one of the most evident firms'activities in all industrialised countries, being fostered by some general and country specific facts. These facts have been identified in the appearance of new financial instruments facilitating fund raising by firms, in the benevolent behaviour of the authorities in charge of competition policy during the Reagan administration in the US, while inter­ nal market completion has become a strong incentive for European firms to reach a true continental dimension in the UE through external growth. However a robust and univocal answer to these questions has not yet been found in spite of its importance not only from the theoretical point of view, but also from the normative one. In fact the correct identification of firms'motivations in pursuing merger and acquisition operations and of their consequences on social welfare would help the choice by administra­ tive authorities of different possible options in competition and industrial policies.

This volume focuses on incentive regulation and competition. While much of the regulatory action is taking place in telecommunications, the impact of competition and the resultant regulatory change is being felt in other traditional public utilities including electricity. The book reviews topics including price caps, incentive regulation, market structure and new regulatory technologies.

Regulation Under Increasing Competition brings together practitioners, regulators, and economists to examine the important policy and regulatory issues facing the telecommunications and electricity industries. This volume reviews such topics as competitive entry, stranded costs, pricing and market mechanisms. It provides a unique perspective on problems in a newly deregulated environment.

I. The concept of competition played a central role in the very first attempts to apply the tools of economics to the analysis of politics. Adopting Hotelling's (1929) industrial organization model of imperfect competition in markets in which space has a predominant role, Downs (1957), following on some perceptive insights of Schumpeter (1942), was able to formulate a model of electoral competition in which political parties, seeking the support of citizens, compete against each other in offering policies designed to elicit their vote. Downs'model and the numerous variants to which it gave birth soon became the major component of what was to become Public Choice Theory. The enormous efforts of the last 30 years devoted to modelling electoral competition have helped improve our understanding of politics and have contributed a basic element that undoubtedly will remain essential to any reasonably complete theory of politics. But whatever may have been early expectations, it is now clear that electoral competition will only be one such element. More recently, the idea of competition has been used to model interest-group behavior. Becker (1983), building on earlier work by Bentley (1908), Truman (1958), Olson (1965), Stigler (1971) and Peltzman (1976), applied the Public Finance analysis of the excess-burden of taxes and subsidies - to which, incidentally, Hotelling (1938) had made pioneering contribution- to produce a model in which competition between interest groups determines an equilibrium distribution of income.

Globalisierung beschreibt einen weltweiten Prozeß sinkender Kosten der Überwindung von Raum und Zeit. Sie ist ein weltweites Programm der Mehrung von Exit-Optionen für die Privaten. Ihnen bieten sich zunehmende Möglichkeiten des physischen oder funktionalen Verlassens einer Jurisdiktion. Die institutionellen Arrangements werden damit in einen Wettbewerbskontext gestellt: Standortgebundene Institutionen stehen in Kosten-Nutzen-Kalkülen mobiler Entscheidungsträger auf dem Prüfstand ihrer internationalen Wettbewerbsfähigkeit. Das nennen wir Systemwettbewerb. Nationale Wirtschaftspolitik muß sich also im Systemwettbewerb dem Test auf ihre internationale Konkurrenzfähigkeit stellen. Die Exit-Optionen entmonopolisieren mithin die Regierenden in ihrer exklusiven Regelungskompetenz und Durchsetzungsmacht gegenüber den Privaten, weil letzteren nunmehr das Ausweichen in andere Standorte möglich ist. Diese exitbedingte Entmonopolisierung staatlichen Handelns gibt den Privaten Macht, den Staat in die Funktion eines Mitbewerbers im Systemwettbewerb um die mobilen Ressourcen zu zwingen. Wirtschaftspolitik unterliegt im Systemwettbewerb folglich schärferen externen Restriktionen und entmachtet die traditionelle Staatlichkeit, fordert aber die Entscheidungsträger auch stärker zu innovativen Lösungen ihres Handelns heraus, um in der Dynamik des Systemwettbewerbs bestehen zu können. Dies war der thematische Hintergrund der Jahrestagung des Wirtschaftspolitischen Ausschusses im Verein für Socialpolitik, die vom 15. bis 17. März 2005 in Marburg stattfand und deren Referate in diesem Band publiziert werden. Es liegt in der Natur der Sache, daß unter der Generalüberschrift'Wirtschaftspolitik im Systemwettbewerb'die Breite und Tiefe der behandelten Themen groß ist. Die Themenspektren der vorliegenden Referate dokumentieren dies.

It is apparent that environmental issues affect the livelihoods and well being of individuals, communities and businesses the world over. In that vein, this book examines the impact that climate change and other environmental factors have on business. The effect of climate change, while a significant factor, will influence business slowly, but inexorably. Executives should manage environmental risk at three levels: regulatory compliance, potential liability from industrial accidents, and pollutant release mitigation.Companies that are proactive in mitigating their exposure to climate-change risks will not only generate new profitable opportunities, but also gain competitive advantage over their rivals in a carbon-constrained future. Enhancing Global Competitiveness through Sustainable Environmental Stewardship provides frameworks for identifying how climate change might affect a business, and suggests strategy guidelines to manage the risks and seek opportunities.This seminal collection of research will be of particular interest to students and scholars of sustainability studies, business and management, and business professionals concerned with the role they will play in the changing and challenging times that lie ahead for business growth and environmental consciousness.

Das Gesundheitswesen hat sich innerhalb weniger Jahre zu einem wichtigen Feld der wirtschaftspolitischen Debatte entwickelt. Dabei greifen zwei Entwicklungslinien ineinander über. Einerseits entwickelt sich das Gesundheitswesen als Ganzes immer mehr zu einer Gesundheitswirtschaft, wo Wachstums- und Entwicklungsprozesse eine begleitende Wettbewerbsordnung benötigen. Andererseits ist der innere Kern des Gesundheitswesens, das solidarisch finanzierte System der Gesetzlichen Krankenversicherung, einem stetigen Reformdruck ausgesetzt. Das System der Gesetzlichen Krankenversicherung unterliegt trotz größerer Öffnungsklauseln zugunsten selektiver Vertragsoptionen mit niedergelassenen Ärzten und Krankenkassen in den meisten Fällen nicht dem Wettbewerbsrecht, sondern dem Sozialrecht bzw. das Wettbewerbsrecht soll analog von Sozialgerichten berücksichtigt werden. Gerade die Frage, wie Wettbewerbsregeln einerseits und die Garantie sozialer Sicherheit andererseits ausgestaltet werden können, beherrscht die gesundheitspolitische Debatte. Dabei ist wettbewerbstheoretisch die Frage zu klären, welche Analogien des allgemeinen Wettbewerbsrechts, sei es im Bereich der Fusionskontrolle, bei der Frage abgestimmten Verhaltens oder bei Aspekten des Behinderungswettbewerbs, übertragbar sind. Die Beiträge im Band - allesamt schriftliche Fassungen der im März 2009 in Leipzig auf der Jahrestagung 2009 der Arbeitsgruppe Wettbewerb des Wirtschaftspolitischen Ausschusses im Verein für Socialpolitik gehaltenen Referate - zeigen unterschiedliche Ausprägungen der Wettbewerbsorientierung im Gesundheitswesen auf. Insbesondere werden verschiedene Ausprägungen im Verhältnis der Krankenversicherungen untereinander bzw. im Verhältnis Krankenversicherung und Leistungserbringer problematisiert. Die Beiträge bilden vornehmlich den Blick der Praxis ab und sollen somit in Kombination mit den wissenschaftlichen Grundprinzipien, die im Eingangsreferat deutlich werden, aktuelle Fragen der Wettbewerbsorientierung im Gesundheitswesen beleuchten und mögliche Lösungsstrategien entwerfen.

The International Management Accounting Conference 4 was held in August 2007 in Kuala Lumpur to discuss issues pertaining to the role of accounting in liberalized economy. From the conference, it was clear that liberalized economy does impact the direction, nature and practices of accounting. In response to these challenges, accounting must play a proactive and relevant role to sustain the competitiveness of companies in the business environment. Therefore it is the intention of the conference organizers to share the issues, problems and challenges in sustaining competitiveness in liberalized economy with a larger audience through the publication of this book. The book is organized in the following themes:Cost and Information ManagementPerformance MeasurementStrategic AllianceThe articles included in this book were selected from the papers reviewed and presented at the International Management Accounting Conference 4. The articles were written based on research findings of studies conducted in several countries including Malaysia, New Zealand, Indonesia, UK, India, Saudi Arabia and Botswana. Therefore they are expected to have high academic value, each complete with literature review, methodology, data analysis and references. Even though that is the case, the papers have been carefully chosen and edited for mass readers. This book is suitable for researchers, academicians, graduate students, and practitioners with interest in business, economics and accounting:

'Innovationsfördernde Regulierung'bildet den zweiten Band im Rahmen des Projekts'Innovation und Recht'. Das Projekt zielt auf eine systematische, trans- und interdisziplinäre Untersuchung des bestehenden Rechts hinsichtlich seiner förderlichen oder hemmenden Einflüsse auf technologische Innovationsprozesse und soll Ansatzpunkte für seine Weiterentwicklung aufzeigen. Die Autoren wenden sich dem Spannungsfeld von staatlicher Regulierung und Innovation zu. In ihm wird zunächst das notwendig mangelnde Wissen des Staates um mögliche Innovationen als zentrales Problem herausgearbeitet, um anschließend die bestehenden Ansätze und verbleibenden Möglichkeiten einer innovationsfördernden staatlichen Regulierung zu untersuchen. Im Zentrum stehen die regulatorische Umhegung und der gezielte regulatorische Einsatz ökonomischer Märkte. Dabei werden die Möglichkeiten eines innovationsorientierten Wettbewerbsrechts, insbesondere auch mit Blick auf den dynamischen Telekommunikationsmarkt, untersucht und Folgerungen für die entsprechenden gesetzlichen Regelungen in TKG, GWB und EGV gezogen. Den breiteren Anwendungsbereich innovationsfördernder Regulierung bilden allerdings die Bereiche, in denen vordefinierte öffentliche Zwecke mittels innovationsstimulierender oder jedenfalls innovationsoffener Rechtsregime verfolgt werden. Am Querschnittsgebiet des Vergaberechts und an den Referenzgebieten des Umwelt- und Energierechts wird detailliert aufgezeigt, wie vor allem ein instrumenteller Rückgriff auf ökonomische Wettbewerbselemente vorgenommen wurde, ausgestaltet ist und weiterentwickelt werden kann. Daneben werden für das Ordnungsrecht wiederum am Beispiel des Umweltrechts innovationsöffnende Flexibilisierungs- und Dynamisierungsansätze näher analysiert. Abschließend wird die Rückwirkung rechtlicher Regelungen auf den Innovationspfad reflektiert und nach Möglichkeiten und Grenzen'technikneutraler'Regulierung gefragt.

Arbeiten - Lernen - Kompetenzen entwickeln 2. Zukunftsforum Innovationsfähigkeit des BMBF Die Fähigkeit zur Innovation ist gerade in wirtschaftlich schwierigen Zeiten eine wichtige Grundlage, um im internationalen Wettbewerb bestehen zu können. In der Innovationsfähigkeit liegt dabei nicht nur der Schlüssel zu wirtschaftlichem Erfolg. Sie ermöglicht auch soziale Teilhabe und gesellschaftliche Entwicklung. Die Förderung von Innovationsfähigkeit und die Frage, wie Innovationen herbeigeführt und erfolgreich gestaltet werden können, gehören daher zu den zentralen gesellschaftspolitischen Themen. [...] Auf dem zweiten Zukunftsforum Innovationsfähigkeit'Arbeiten - Lernen - Kompetenzen entwickeln'am 2. und 3. April 2009 in Berlin wurden Forschungsergebnisse und Projekte vorgestellt, die aus deutscher und europäischer Perspektive den Innovationsprozess in seinem komplexen Zusammenspiel von technologischen Entwicklungen mit der Organisations-, Personal- und Kompetenzentwicklung aufgreifen und darauf aufbauend Konzepte für Praxis und Wissenschaft ableiten. Dieser Tagungsband fasst die Beiträge zusammen: Er stellt Strategien für eine innovationsförderliche Personal- und Organisationsentwicklung sowie für Wissens- oder Veränderungsmanagement zusammen. Und er zeigt neue Wege einer ganzheitlichen betrieblichen Gesundheitsförderung wie auch Innovationen in und mit Netzwerken auf. Zugleich haben wir auch neue Bereiche einbezogen, wie zum Beispiel die Gestaltung offener Innovationsprozesse, die Chancen und Risiken von Enterprise 2.0 und nicht zuletzt die für die Innovationsfähigkeit neu in den Blick zu nehmende Schnittstelle zwischen Mensch und Technik. [...] Aus dem Vorwort

Title from PDF cover (viewed on Nov. 11, 2008).

This volume addresses some of the critical issues now demanding the attention of International Business teachers and researchers. From several angles, the contributions analyze factors which may explain, and/or influence the relationship between the competitiveness of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and the countries in which they operate. More particularly, the four main issues address: the recent advances in the determinants and strategy of multinational business activity; the determinants of location competitiveness of countries; the competitiveness of emergent and developing countries and the locational responses of both indigenous and foreign-owned firms; and the policy challenges raised by the highly fragmented, and often uncoordinated international regulatory framework on government FDI. It is hoped the contents of the volume will be of interest to international business scholars, senior executives of multinational enterprises and national policy makers interested in advancing their competitiveness by engaging in outward, and encouraging inward foreign direct investment. This book addresses some of the critical issues now demanding the attention of International Business teachers and researchers. This book is published annually.

In one volume, this book brings together a selection of the best papers presented at the 9th International Conference series on Competition and Ownership of Land Passenger Transport (known as the Thredbo Series). Thredbo is a premier international event that brings together academics, government policy makers, politicians, consultants and public transport operators to review the international developments in the theme area. As the most important international conference in this field of expertise, the series has more than 120 papers of well known authors and practitioners of Land Transport. Best papers from previous conferences were published in'T& F journal'and'Transport Reviews'. Papers are reviewed and revised appropriately to ensure high quality. This book takes a practical approach by focusing on real world examples.

Papers presented at a conference organized by the Association d'économie politique and held at the Université du Québec à Montréal, Nov. 9-11, 2005.

Governments, Competition and Utility Regulation continues the series of annual books, published in association with the Institute of Economic Affairs and the London Business School, which critically reviews the state of utility regulation and competition policy. The book contains incisive chapters on competition policy and trade, antitrust and consumer welfare, merger control and efficiency, emissions trading, Ofcom and convergence, energy regulation and competition, regulating the London Underground, the future of water regulation and European merger control.Chapters on each topic are followed by comments from regulators, competition authority chairmen and other experts in the relevant fields. The book provides analysis of and commentaries on the most significant developments in regulation and competition policy, drawing on experiences in Britain, the United States and the European Union, as well as in international trade negotiations. It will be of value to practitioners, policymakers and academics who are concerned with regulation, deregulation and policies to promote competition.

This is the second part of our special issue comprising research from the ScientificGroup of Logistics, Association of University Professors in Management. Thefundamental goals of the Scientific Group of Logistics are the promotion of logistics inacademic research and education as well as the promotion of prospective candidatesfor scientific positions. In respect to teaching, the following activities are addressed:. development of proposals for academic logistic education as well as discussion ofthe elementary understanding of logistics;. discussion of specific syllabi that can be used in diff.

In 1989 the late Prof Michael Beesley and Prof David Hensher convened a workshop of an invitational group of academics, transport operators and government regulators to review and report on the recent reforms in the British bus sector. The workshop was held in Thredbo, Australia. At the time this was a once off activity. Its success was such that it spawned a series of biannual conferences (now known as the Thredbo series) held in Finland (1991), Canada (1993), New Zealand (1995), England (1997), South Africa (1999), Norway (2001), Brasil (2003) and Portugal (2005). The conference series attracts a unique mix of researchers and practitioners with the common aim to share their experiences throughout the world on topics related to the institutional reform of land passenger transport (especially bus, rail and ferry). The focus is on workshops and plenary sessions in which participants are engaged in intense discussions that lead to the production of workshop reports that set the agenda for reform for the next period between the conferences. In the past workshop reports have been published in a major international journal and selected papers in special issues of journals. The growing number of citations of the material from the thredbo series has motivated this book, providing an opportunity to bring together in one volume the best papers from the conference plus the workshop reports. All chapters have been peer refereed. The themes in this volume (the first in a new series) include competition and regulation, contract specifications (especially performance-based contracts), regulatory and planning tools, institutional frameworks, service quality and pricing and performance data and measurement. Within one volume we provide a comprehensive update and review of the reform programs throughout the world in the land passenger transport sector. The volume is edited by Professor David Hensher, co-founder of the series and a recognized world authority in the field. It is the most current global assessment of reforms in land passenger transport. It contains papers written by those who influence policy and institutional reform in over 20 countries. It presents a comprehensive statement of the successes and failures in public transport reform. Many of the authors are regarded as the leading authorities in the field. The case studies throughout the world are not available in any other single source.

This two-volume set comprises the proceedings of the 2002 symposium concerned with innovation in the construction industry and global competition. Approximately 115 papers address topics ranging from business improvement to the impact of innovation on the built environment; and globalization and competitiveness.

The incorporation of intellectual property protection into the WTO international trading system has been a milestone in international economic law and has added a new dimension to trade regulation — new rights and obligations and new challenges alike. The contributors, leading scholars and practitioners in the field, provide insights into the legal relationship of the TRIPs Agreement to the GATT 94 and the GATS. The book widens the debate with a thorough discussion on pending and unresolved relations of TRIPs, the WTO, UPOV, the Convention on Biodiversity and Farmers'Rights contained in the FAO International Undertaking, and efforts of the World Bank GCIAR system, including IPGRI. What will be the impact of TRIPs on ownership of plant genetic resources? Largely a victory for OECD countries, the present state of intellectual property rights has important implications for developing countries. The incorporation of intellectual property rights into the WTO system will eventually change the relationship of trade, competition, and intellectual property. It will equally have to assist in providing equitable sharing of benefits in the use of plant genetic resources. All of these issues are essential for the revision of exclusions from patenting in TRIPs. This volume offers insights into how this difficult task could and should be approached in a balanced manner and will be essential reading for economists and trade and intellectual property lawyers interested in the subject. Moreover, the volume will be relevant to agricultural economists as it addresses complex problems in the interstices of trade, intellectual property, plant genetic resources, and sustainable development. Thomas Cottier is Professor of European and International Economic Law, University of Bern, and Managing Director, World Trade Institute, University of Bern. Petros C. Mavroidis is Professor of Law, University of Neuchâtel. He formerly worked in the Legal Affairs Division of the World Trade Organization. Marion Panizzon is Research Fellow, University of Bern. Simon Lacey is Research Fellow, University of Bern.

The telecommunications industry has experienced dynamic changes over the past several years, and those exciting events and developments are reflected in the chapters of this volume. The Telecommunications Policy Research Conference (TPRC) holds an unrivaled place at the center of national public policy discourse on issues in communications and information. TPRC is one of the few places where multidisciplinary discussions take place as the norm. The papers collected here represent the current state of research in telecommunication policy, and are organized around four topics: competition, regulation, universal service, and convergence. The contentious competition issues include bundling as a strategy in software competition, combination bidding in spectrum auctions, and anticompetitive behavior in the Internet. Regulation takes up telephone number portability, decentralized regulatory decision making versus central regulatory authority, data protection, restrictions to the flow of information over the Internet, and failed Global Information Infrastructure initiatives. Universal service addresses the persistent gap in telecommunications from a socioeconomic perspective, the availability of competitive Internet access service and cost modeling. The convergence section concentrates on the costs of Internet telephony versus circuit switched telephony, the intertwined evolution of new services, new technologies, and new consumer equipment, and the politically charged question of asymmetric regulation of Internet telephony and conventional telephone service.

Economists generally accept that competition discloses knowledge, enhances efficiency and restrains power. However, these effects of competition have so far been discussed mainly with respect to economic markets in which firms and households compete within a given set of institutions, that is within a given legal order. The question arises whether competition may also have comparable effects on the institutional level in the sense of competition among legal orders and thus serve as an antidote to today's problems. The present book addresses some of the fundamental aspects associated with institutional competition and identifies some possible lines for further research on how institutions can compete to bring about social and economic change.

Economic Theory, Econometrics, and Mathematical Economics: A Series of Monographs and Textbooks: Noncooperative Approaches to the Theory of Perfect Competition focuses on the application of noncooperative approaches to the theory of perfect competition, including Cournot game, no-surplus condition, and Nash equilibria. The selection first elaborates on collusive behavior in noncooperative epsilon-equilibria of oligopolies with long but finite lives and noncooperative price taking in large dynamic markets. Discussions focus on noncooperative equilibria which support the monopoly allocation, alternative definition of perfect epsilon-equilibrium, one-period Cournot game, fixed-demand case, and replication case. The book takes a look at noncooperative price taking in large dynamic markets, no-surplus condition as a characterization of perfectly competitive equilibrium, perfect competition, profit criterion, and the organization of economic activity. Topics include profits to individually improving welfare, structure of firms, competitive allocations as no surplus allocations, profits as rents, Walrasian and perfectly competitive equilibrium, and no-surplus and core equivalence as alternative characterizations of perfectly competitive equilibrium. The manuscript ponders on Nash equilibria of market games and efficiency properties of strategic market games, as well as commodities, agents, assignments, strategic markets games, proper and full Cournot-Nash equilibria, and finiteness and inefficiency. The selection is a valuable source of data for researchers interested in noncooperative approaches to the theory of perfect competition.