Economic principles of state aid control

This paper summarizes the economic principles of European state aid control. We start with a discussion of the economic justification for state aid control, including the definition of state aid in European law and exceptions to the general ban of state aid. We then explore the motives for granting state aid, ranging from the correction of market failures over political motives to political economy considerations. We then discuss how state aid control fits into the framework of European competition policy before we comment extensively on the more economic approach to state aid control, as implemented by the European Commission, and the state aid action plan. --

Dynamic Coalition Formation and the Core

This paper presents a dynamic model of endogenous coalition formation in cooperative games with transferable utility. The players are boundedly rational. At each time step, a player decides which of the existing coalitions to join, and demands a payoff. These decisions are determined by a (non- cooperative) best-reply rule, given the coalition structure and allocation in the previous period. We show that absorbing states of the process exist if the game is essential. Further, if the players are allowed to experiment with myopically suboptimal strategies whenever there are potential gains from trade, an isomorphism between the set of absorbing states of the process and the set of core allocations can beestablished, and the process converges to one of these states with probability one whenever the core is non-empty. This result holds independently of the form of the characteristic function.TU Games; Coalition Formation; Bounded Rationality; Core

Inter-firm R&D networks in the global pharmaceutical biotechnology industry during 1985 - 1998: A conceptual and empirical analysis

This paper analyses a large database on inter-firm R&D cooperation formed in the pharmaceutical biotechnology industry during the period 1985 - 1998. The results indicate that network size largely grows, whereas the density of the network declines during the periods. In the network analysis that emphasizes individual structural positions, the empirical results show that small biotechnological companies had a crucial bridging role for the large pharmaceutical firms in the second half of the 1980s. In the 1990s, the bridge role of biotechnology companies became less important and established pharmaceutical companies developed into dominant start players with many collaborators while holding central roles in the research network. The current analysis also shows that degree-based and betweenness-based network centralization are both low implying that the overall positional advantages are relatively equally distributed in the inter-firm R&D network of the pharmaceutical biotechnology industry. --R&D networks,pharmaceutical biotechnology,network analysis,conceptual centrality,network visualization software

Zwischen Sozialromantik und Neoliberalismus : zur Ökonomie der Sharing-Economy

Der vorliegende Beitrag gibt einen Überblick über die wesentlichen ökonomischen Aspekte der so genannten Sharing-Economy. Bei den dort tätigen Unternehmen handelt es sich zumeist um Plattformen, die direkte Transaktionen zwischen Akteuren mit dem Zweck einer temporären Nutzung dauerhafter Konsumgüter und damit verbundener Dienstleistungen vermitteln. Diese Sharing-Plattformen konnten vor allem aufgrund technologischer Entwicklungen entstehen, die die Transaktionskosten, wie z.B. aufgrund asymmetrischer Information über den Transaktionspartner, extrem reduziert haben. Dieses Informationsproblem adressieren Sharing-Plattformen ohne staatliche Regulierung mittels Rating- und Reputationssystemen. Die Sharing-Economy ist jedoch keineswegs eine „Ökonomie des Teilens“, sondern auch in diesem Wirtschaftsbereich werden ökonomische Güter ge- und verkauft. Im vorliegenden Beitrag untersuchen die Autoren die kurz- und langfristigen allokativen Effekte der Sharing-Economy und diskutieren mögliche Externalitäten sowie ihre Auswirkungen auf soziale Beziehungen. Anschließend gehen die Autoren der Frage nach, wie eine ökonomisch sinnvolle Regulierung von Sharing-Plattformen ausgestaltet sein sollte und welche Wettbewerbsprobleme sie verursachen könnten. Abschließend wird auf mögliche Entwicklungen dieses neuen Wirtschaftsbereiches eingegangen

Effekte verschiedener Rabattformen : Überlegungen zu einem ökonomisch fundierten Ansatz

Der vorliegende Aufsatz diskutiert die ökonomischen Wirkungen von Treuerabatten im Ein-Produkt-Fall. Es zeigt sich, dass die in der letzten Zeit vorgebrachten Argumente bezüglich der ?prokompetitiven? Wirkungen solcher Rabatte mit Skepsis beurteilt werden müssen. Dies gilt insbesondere für die unterstellten Wirkungen von Treuerabatten bei ?doppelten Gewinnaufschlägen?, bei fallenden Durchschnittskosten, bei Größenvorteilen auf der vor- und nachgelagerten Stufe sowie im Zusammenhang mit Preisdiskriminierung und Nachfragemacht. Wir argumentieren, dass viele der behaupteten Wirkungen auch mit Rabattformen erreicht werden könnten, bei denen die Gefahr von wettbewerbsbeschränkenden Wirkungen geringer sein sollte. Unsere Skepsis beruht aber auch darauf, dass oft die Voraussetzungen für die den Argumenten zugrunde liegenden Theorien nicht oder nicht hinreichend gegeben sind?und vor allem oft nicht hinreichend explizit gemacht werden. Allerdings müssen auch die unterstellten wettbewerbsbeschränkenden Wirkungen von Treuerabatten ökonomisch besser fundiert werden. Insgesamt regt dieser Artikel die Weiterentwicklung eines an der Form des jeweiligen Rabattsystems orientierten Beurteilungsmaßstabs an

Inter-firm R&D networks in the global pharmaceutical biotechnology industry during 1985?1998 : a conceptual and empirical analysis

This paper analyses a large database on inter-firm R&D cooperation formed in the pharmaceutical biotechnology industry during the period 1985?1998. The results indicate that network size largely grows, whereas the density of the network declines during the periods. In the network analysis that emphasizes individual structural positions, the empirical results show that small biotechnological companies had a crucial bridging role for the large pharmaceutical firms in the second half of the 1980s. In the 1990s, the bridge role of biotechnology companies became less important and established pharmaceutical companies developed into dominant start players with many collaborators while holding central roles in the research network. The current analysis also shows that degree-based and betweenness-based network centralization are both low implying that the overall positional advantages are relatively equally distributed in the inter-firm R&D network of the pharmaceutical biotechnology industry

Inter-firm R&D networks in pharmaceutical biotechnology : what determines firm's centrality-based partnering capability?

This paper analyses the inter-firm R&D network formed in the pharmaceutical biotechnology industry during the 1990s from different perspectives: theoretical network formation, firm's structural positions and its collaborations at the entire network level, and the determinants for firm's centrality-based partnering capability. The results indicate that pharmaceutical biotechnology industry has experienced a significant evolutional change in size and structure during 1991-1998. By considering individual structural positions, the descriptive statistics show that in the 1990s, established pharmaceutical companies developed into dominant star players with multiple partnerships while holding central roles in the R&D network. In the network analysis that emphasized aggregate network level, the degree-based and betweenness-based network centralization were not high implying that the distribution of overall positional advantages in the pharmaceutical biotechnology industry is, to a large degree, not unequal and even though most firms in this sector are linked to the R&D network, some of them are more active than others. The current analysis also shows that firm's efficiency, firm's dependency on its complementary resources and firm's experiences at managing partnerships are important determinants for firm's centrality-based partnering capability, which has important managerial implications for understanding firm's strategic partnering behaviour

Strategic choice of price-setting algorithms

Recent experimental simulations have shown that autonomous pricing algorithms are able to learn collusive behavior and thus charge supra-competitive prices without being explicitly programmed to do so. These simulations assume, however, that both firms employ the identical price-setting algorithm based on Q-learning. Thus, the question arises whether the underlying assumption that both firms employ a Q-learning algorithm can be supported as an equilibrium in a game where firms can chose between different pricing rules. Our simulations show that when both firms use a learning algorithm, the outcome is not an equilibrium when alternative price setting rules are available. In fact, simpler price setting rules as for example meeting competition clauses yield higher payoffs compared to Q-learning algorithms

Основні підходи до розроблення дизайну упаковки

Упаковка – останній призов, який бачить покупець, і останній шанс переконати його купити товар [1], тому над розробленням цікавого, оригінального дизайну упаковки працює ціла армія професіоналів. Дизайн упаковки включає гармонічну сукупність таких елементів, як: форма, матеріал, розміри, якість виготовлення, вид друку, кольори