More recently, the Centre for Competition Policy (CCP) was established in 2001 and received full Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) recognition and funding in 2004. This funding has recently been renewed until 2014.  Through the CCP, there is close collaboration with competition economists located in The Law School (Morten Hviid) and Norwich Business School (Greg Shaffer, Catherine Waddams), as well as others working on other perspective of competition policy who work in those Schools and the School of Politics.  Look at the CCP website for links to their work.

Here we focus on the research undertaken by members of the School of Economics, together with current and recent research students, several of whom now have RA posts in CCP. This research comprises theoretical, empirical and policy outputs. Researchers in the School advise the world’s leading competition authorities on economic analysis. Steve Davies is academic adviser to Chief Economist of the OFT. Bruce Lyons is a part-time member of the UK Competition Commission and a long-standing member of the European Commission Economic Advisory Group for Competition Policy.

An on-going research theme has been the evaluation of remedies for anti-competitive behaviour.   Steve Davies is researching into evaluation methodologies.  Bruce Lyons is working on the institutional design of merger control,  including work with Luke Garrod (post-doc in CCP) on an empirical test of the efficiency of merger remedy negotiations.  More broadly, Bruce Lyons has recently edited a book on 'Cases in European Compeition Policy: the Economic Analysis' published by CUP. 

Collusion and cartels have been complementary themes. Steve Davies is working on mergers with coordinated effects as identified by the European Commission. Luke Garrod is developing a model of surcharges as a coordination device. Zhijun Chen (CCP post-doc) is writing on mechanism design in fighting collusion and its application in law enforcement, including work with Patrick Rey (IDEI, Toulouse). Bruce Lyons is working with Kai-Uwe Kuhn (Michigan) on corporate compliance.  Oindrila De (PhD student) is working on the structural characteristics of cartel agreements and a duration analysis of EC prosectued cartels.  Panos Agisilaou (PhD student) is working on optimal leniency programmes and Gianni Tabacco (PhD student) is working on vertical product differentiation and collusion. 

The complexity of information processing raises issues of bounded rationality in consumer decision making. This is an area of overlap with the experimental economics group.  Graham Loomes (Warwick), Robert Sugden and Daniel Zizzo are members of the CCP who are collaborating in this area (e.g. the role of consumers in marking markets work). Sugden's current research is primarily directed at reconciling normative and behavioural economics.  His work in CCP is concerned with the implications of behavioural economics for competition policy and consumer protection.  Steve Davies is investigating consumer switching in the presence of non-linear pricing in electricity markets. Luke Garrod investiges price discrimination between sophisticated and impulse buyers.  Also, Daniel Zizzo and Stefania Sitzia (PhD student) are using the experimental method to investigate the importance of product complexity for competition.  The role of consumers in competition, particularly in industries with sector regulators, is further explored through large scale surveys and focus groups (research lef by Catherine Waddams, NBS).

Subhasish Modal Chowdhury applies contest theory (i.e. contexts where losers must pay their costs) to understand optimal design and implications for rent dissipation in competitive envirnoments.  Zhijun Chen is working with Patrick Rey (IDEI, Toulouse) on below cost pricing by supermarkets and with Greg Shaffer on partially exclusive contracts.  Bibhas Saha works on mixrf oligopolies (i.e. competition between state owned and private firms).  Adrian Majumdar (PhD) student works on vertical contracts and on buyer power.

Bruce Lyons is working on the impact of EU state aid policy in the crisis and the implications for banks.  Shaun Hargreaves Heap works on media markets and Sasha Talavera is working on competition in airlines.  At the intersection between IO and environmental economics, Grischa Perino works on innovation and diffusion of abatement technologies.  His research focuses on how the presence of upstream market power affects the relative performance of different forms of environmental regulation in a polluting downstream industry.

Catherine Ball (PhD student and research associate in CCP) is investigating how to deduce the nature of competition in various service sectors from firm numbers in local markets. Gianni Tabacco (PhD student) also works on market structure.  Other PhD students are working on competition in specific industries, including supermarket own brands (Ivan Valdes), computer games (Enrico Urpis), mobile phones (Tim Burnett) and water (Kerry Gardner).

ESRC Centre funding is the primary support for much of the work outlined above. Other work has been commissioned by competition agencies on topics including the consumer benefits of competition policy, the consequences of introducing competition into markets, the effects on productivity of abolishing RPM, merger remedies and consumer remedies for competition problems.

In the IO/competition area, recently completed PhD topics include competition policy, speciality food production, research and development incentives, buyer power in the retail sector, consumers and market power, tacit collusion, and behavioural IO. Our PhD students have taken up posts in leading universities, competition agencies and consultancy. CCP holds an annual PhD student conference involving students from leading European universities mixing with our own.