Nicole Robins to chair GCR Live 3rd Annual State Aid conference
Oxera Partner, Nicole Robins, will chair the Global Competition Review’s Annual State Aid conference in Brussels on 20 September. Register and find out more.
New office opens in Amsterdam, with Maurice de Valois Turk joining as Partner
Maurice de Valois Turk is heading up Oxera’s Amsterdam office, playing a key role in Oxera’s growing international Telecoms, Media & Technology/Digital practice.
No Withdrawal Agreement? What happens next?
A ‘no deal’ scenario leads to two direct costs to UK–EU trade. Additional customs checks incur significant costs, including costs of delays, and any cost of route changes.
Italian water regulation: a changing scene
Regulation of the Italian water sector has undergone profound change over the past decade. The Italian Authority for Electricity and Gas now has regulatory and control functions over water regulation.
Optimal hesitation? Confirmation bias in consumer choices
Behavioural economics is now used by many competition authorities. A recent study at the across economics, neuroscience and machine learning analyses consumer ‘hesitation’, shedding new light on the limits of their ability to assess information.
Consumer data in online markets
Businesses increasingly use consumer data to offer better and more targeted digital products and services. Many of these new business models rely on data to facilitate transactions and generate revenues in a way that was not previously possible. Access to personal data has understandably raised concerns about privacy. Based on a study commissioned by Which?, we investigate the delicate balance between privacy and the value of digital services
Putting the genie back in the bottle—deposit return schemes on plastics
In March 2018 the UK government announced a plan to introduce a deposit return scheme for plastic, glass and metal drinks containers in England. Aimed at curbing pollution by stimulating recycling, the scheme will be consulted on later this year, and will bring England into line with many other EU countries that already have such schemes. From a traditional and a behavioural economics perspective, what conditions are necessary in order for these schemes to achieve the intended policy objectives?
The Heathrow third runway: what next?
Given the approval of the UK government’s National Airports Policy Statement on 5 June 2018, observers may think that the last remaining major obstacles have been removed and the bulldozers are ready to roll in to clear the site for the third runway at Heathrow. But in truth, as Mike Toms, Oxera Director, explains, there are still many hoops to jump through before the project gets off the ground
Sharing too much? Information exchange in the digital economy
Is an excess of information hurting competition? Although there are some well-established, economically founded principles for assessing the exchange of information between competitors, the general increase in information availability in the digital economy presents new challenges. We revisit the economic principles that can be used to understand the likely effects, both beneficial and malign, of information sharing, and how competition authorities could react to these trends
Economic profitability in banking and the (mis)allocation of capital
Many banks make capital allocation decisions using the same profitability hurdle rate for all business units. Does that matter? We look at how this practice could lead to distortions at the business unit level, with potentially important consequences for shareholders, competitors and consumers