We’re pleased to announce that a number of Frontier economists have written articles which have been nominated in the Concurrences Antitrust Writing Awards 2022.
The goal of the awards is to shine a light on competition scholarship, contribute to competition advocacy and to discover the best antitrust content published over the last year.
Two of the nominated articles fall under the “Best Business Articles: Economics” category. Details of both are summarised below.
“Stay in your lane?” looks at how regulators are dealing with the competitive effects of growing business ecosystems. Recently, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has voiced concerns that entry by an established (particularly digital) firm into new markets can be a ‘defensive’ strategy employed to protect its position in an existing core market. In this article we ask: what would need to be true for such diversification to have anti-competitive effects? And what would be the appropriate regulatory response in this situation? To read the article and vote, click here.
“Imagining alternate realities” considers the future of collective proceedings in the UK. The UK Supreme Court’s leading judgment in Merricks provides guidance on the relevant standard for assessing proposed collective proceedings at the certification stage. However, given the nature of that case, there remains uncertainty as to how this guidance will be applied to cases with different characteristics. With certification hearings scheduled in several cases over the coming months, the article explores the lessons that could be drawn from Merricks, and the challenges that the Competition Appeal Tribunal may face in seeking to apply these lessons. To read the article and vote, click here.
A third article falls under the “Best Academic Articles: Economics” category. Details are summarised below.
“Reverse privatization as a reaction to the competitive environment: evidence from solid waste collection in Germany” looks at how, after earlier waves of privatisation, local governments have increasingly taken back control of local service provisions in some sectors and countries and instead started providing those services themselves (reverse privatisation). Using a unique panel dataset on the mode of service provision for solid waste collection for German municipalities that cover the years 2003, 2009, and 2015, the article investigates the motives for reverse privatisation. To read the article and vote, click here.
If you would like to know more about the Concurrences Antitrust Writing Awards, you can visit their website here. Winners will be announced on Wednesday 5 April 2022, during the Antitrust Writing Awards Ceremony held in Washington, DC.
