Since 2010, Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft (GAFAM) have acquired more than 400 companies. Competition authorities did not scrutinize most of these transactions and blocked none. This raised concerns that GAFAM acquisitions target potential competitors yet fly under the radar of current merger control due to the features of the digital economy. We empirically study the competitive effects ...
Obwohl die Nachfrage nach nachhaltigen Anlageprodukten steigt und die Regulierung zur Offenlegung von Nachhaltigkeitsaspekten zunimmt, mangelt es auf Seiten der Anleger:innen an Informationen über die Nachhaltigkeit der angebotenen Anlageprodukte. Auch wenn in der Literatur hunderte von ESG-Indikatoren für Standard-Investmentprodukte zur Verfügung stehen, gibt es bisher keinen ganzheitlichen Ansatz ...
This is an online seminar using Cisco Webex. You will receive the login data with the invitation to the talk. Abstract: A fast growing and diverse literature has addressed one of the riddles of economic developments: the declining labor productivity growth in almost all advanced economies. One of the reasons discussed is the shift towards service industries with inherently low...
This is an online seminar using Cisco Webex. You will receive the login data with the invitation to the talk. Abstract: High and growing prescription drug costs in the United States are a major concern for policy makers. This paper focuses on the extent to which promotional gifts and other transfers made to physicians by pharmaceutical companies cause physicians to prescribe more...
The European Commission (DG Competition) commissioned an international consortium of DIW Berlin together with E.CA Economics, LEAR, University of East Anglia and Sheppard Mullin with a background study on State aid in the field of environmental protection and energy. The results of the study will support the Commission in the revision of the EU Guidelines on State aid for environmental protection...
The deployment of a safe and effective vaccine for Covid-19 will be central to lifting containment measures. In a bid to speed up vaccine deployment, governments are entering into ‘Advance Purchase Agreements’ (APAs) with vaccine companies to secure access to vaccine doses. We document and compare the vaccine procurement strategies of the US and the EU. Most notably, we find that both...
This is an online seminar using Webex. You will receive the login data with the invitation to the talk. Abstract: There is an ongoing debate both in academia and in policy circles about the effects of takeovers of small, young firms by large incumbents in innovative industries. Many argue that such takeovers are anticompetitive and harm innovation by killing off nascent competition....
The tremendous growth of digital transactions has profoundly affected the way we interact, opening vast opportunities to improve our lives. Consumers have benefited from an unprecedented proliferation of new services and products that previously were simply too costly to be developed and marketed to customers. These digital interactions create vast amounts of data. While firms are already using...
On 2 June 2020 DG Competition of the European Commission published several support studies on the retrospective evaluation of State aid rules. This “Fitness check” will serve as a basis for future Commission’s decisions about whether to further prolong or update the rules expiring in 2020. The consortium of DIW Berlin, Lear, Sheppard Mullin and UEA Consulting under the leadership ...