Agenda – Oxera

Investment appraisal in the round: why MCA?

February 2021

Multi-criteria analysis (‘MCA’) is a set of methods, techniques and tools that considers multiple objectives and criteria to support decision-making. It takes a broader perspective than cost–benefit analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis, which stress monetary considerations. MCA is set to play a greater role in investment appraisal as increasing emphasis is placed on having clear strategic links to policies, ‘levelling up’, and stewardship of the environment. Oxera Senior Adviser, Dr Rupert Booth, here considers the motivations for the use of MCA and some of its many techniques

Move fast and analyse things: sensible regulation for digital markets

January 2021

Fast-moving digital markets require equally nimble regulatory authorities to oversee them. However, speed of action must not come at the cost of robust market analyses, unless we are to risk jeopardising the benefits digital markets have to offer. In...

The Digital Services (balancing) Act: protecting consumers while enabling businesses

December 2020

On 15 December, the European Commission published its long-awaited proposals for a new Digital Services Act (‘DSA’) and Digital Markets Act (‘DMA’). These landmark pieces of legislation will have wide-reaching effects throughout Europe’s economy. Here in Today’s Agenda, we consider some of the implications of the DSA for online platforms and their business users

Preparing for resilience: analysing and treating risk

December 2020

Resilience of infrastructure is moving up the policy agenda, according to a report published this year by the UK’s National Infrastructure Commission (NIC). The NIC considers resilience to be characterised by an ability to ‘Anticipate, Resist, Absorb, Recover, Adapt and Transform’. Dr Rupert Booth, Oxera Economic Adviser, examines the first element—‘Anticipate’. He considers the role of the economist in working with executives on the analysis and treatment of risk as the first step in creating a resilience strategy

Platforms at the gate? Initial reactions to the Commission’s digital consultations

June 2020

On 2 June 2020, the European Commission launched a consultation on proposals for a new competition tool (NCT) and the Digital Services Act (DSA) package. If enacted, they would represent a significant change in competition enforcement in the EU, and a major step-up in the regulatory rules and oversight of the digital economy.

Living remotely: the value of being connected

June 2020

Prior to early 2020, the idea of living remotely might have triggered visions of moving to the northernmost Scottish island, or to the far edges of Alaska, and becoming self-sufficient—retreating to a more primitive lifestyle, away from the demands of modern life and its reliance on technology and the Internet.

To provide or not to provide access? The Dutch broadband joint SMP case

May 2020

On 17 March 2020, the Dutch Trade and Industry Appeals Tribunal (CBb) published its long-awaited verdict on the appeal against the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) 2018 finding of joint dominance in the Dutch retail broadband market. Why did the CBb rule in favour of the appellants, and what are the implications of this finding for the regulation of wholesale broadband access in the telecoms sector?

Digital platform regulation: What are the proposals across Europe?

December 2019

Calls to ‘do something’ about tech giants are getting louder. Some suggest that breaking them up is the best way to go, but such strong intervention is absent from the most developed regulatory proposals seen so far. Taking into account recent prominent reports from (or for) the European Commission and several national competition authorities, what are the main proposals on the table, and are they plausible?

How does social media shape purposeful business?

December 2019

Society is playing a growing role in shaping the way that businesses operate. Reflecting this, have become platforms to highlight good and bad business practice and help people coordinate responses. To what extent does this pressure influence core business operations? —and therefore the future of business? Tim Hogg, a behavioural economist at Oxera, takes a look at the role of social media in the context of thinking Beyond the Bottom Line.

Political control of state-owned utilities in the UK

November 2019

The UK Labour Party’s proposal to nationalise core utilities has renewed debate about whether nationalisation is a good or a bad thing. Tim Tutton, Associate at the Centre for Competition Policy (University of East Anglia, UK), takes a different approach. Focusing on the issue of political control, he explores whether lessons can be learned—from both the nationalised era and the privatised era—and how any future (potential) nationalisations might be made to work more effectively than in the past

State aid spotlight on tax: the General Court’s judgments on Fiat and Starbucks

October 2019

In 2015, the European Commission ordered Starbucks and Fiat to each pay €20m–€30m in the Netherlands and Luxembourg, respectively, as their tax arrangements were found to constitute illegal state aid. On 24 September 2019, the General Court upheld the Commission’s Fiat decision, but annulled the Starbucks decision. What were the key economic issues in these cases, and what are the implications of the judgments?

EU broadband: co-investing in a faster future

September 2019

Rolling out very high-capacity networks (VHCNs) across Europe to deal with ever-increasing broadband demands is challenging. To incentivise investment, the European Commission has introduced new conditions relating to co-investment agreements, including a promise (subject to certain conditions) not to regulate SMP operators that enter into an investment agreement with at least one other operator. Peter Culham, Senior Adviser, Felipe Flórez Duncan, Partner, and Michael Weekes, Senior Consultant, ask: is it enough to unlock investment in VHCNs?