Green agreements: Oxera’s perspective on the new UK guidelines
The CMA has launched its Green Agreements Guidance to help businesses co-operate on environmental goals. This new guidance will help businesses understand how they can collaborate on environmental sustainability goals while adhering to the law.1 Oxera welcomed the opportunity provided by the CMA to comment on the draft… Read More
Rethinking HS2
On 4 October 2023, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirmed that Phase 2 of High Speed Two (HS2) would not go ahead.1 Was this the right call? How do we make the most of where we are now? To answer these questions, we need to understand why HS2 was… Read More
What does the cost of debt tell us about the cost of equity—part two
How can data on the cost of debt be used to improve estimates of the cost of equity? A previous article on this topic, published in May 2023, explained that as a senior claim on the assets, the debt risk premium should be lower than the… Read More
Does paying passive managers to engage improve ESG performance?
‘Does paying passive managers to engage improve ESG performance?’ is a paper by Professors Marco Becht, Julian Franks, Hideaki Miyajima and Kazunori Suzuki. The paper is the recipient of a prestigious PRI (Principles for Responsible Investment) 2023 award. Marco, Julian and Kazunori visited Oxera on 14 September 2023 to present… Read More
Caught offside? The EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation and European football clubs
There have already been two well-publicised requests for the Commission to use its ex officio powers under the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR), to investigate alleged distortive subsidies granted to two European professional football clubs by their Gulf states’ owners. We set out the economic and financial questions that would… Read More
The Oxera Energy Model: price coupling in the European energy mix
Oxera’s new Energy Model enables detailed analysis of a range of future scenarios involving the energy generation mix in Europe. The interactive map above showcases one example relating to price coupling. (For an introduction to this topic, see Oxera’s Agenda article from April 2023.)… Read More
Carbon prices: working together or pulling apart?
Carbon pricing is often recommended by economists as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, in practice, several different carbon prices are used in the aviation sector. What are each of these prices, and why do they differ? And are carbon markets even working correctly? Given the unfolding… Read More
Improving consumer engagement with financial services (and why banning commissions might be a bad idea)
The remuneration of financial intermediaries has been the subject of debate across Europe for several years. In its recently published Retail Investment Strategy (RIS), the European Commission has proposed to impose a (partial) ban for insurance intermediaries to receive inducements when independent advice is provided, or products are sold… Read More
The expert hot tub: choose your model
Invented in the southern hemisphere, expert hot tubs are increasingly used in competition law cases in Europe. They allow the evidence from economic experts (party-appointed and/or court-appointed) to be heard concurrently in court. These hot tubs come in different shapes and sizes. Dr Gunnar Niels, Managing Partner at Oxera,… Read More
The Great Squeeze
In recent months, the cost of living has been on the rise in the UK and across the globe. Factors such as increasing food and energy prices, particularly gas prices, have contributed to this trend. Read More