Junior Research Group Competition and Innovation

Focus of the Junior Research Group

  • Influence of Market Concentration and Competitive Pressure on Productivity and Innovation
  • Impact of Financial Interconnectedness of Companies on Corporate Strategies
  • Design of Rules and Processes in Technology Standardisation Procedures
  • Information Flow Between Companies and Its Effects on Price and Innovation Strategies

The Junior Research Group “Competition and Innovation” addresses questions in competition economics and policy, in particular at the interface to innovation economics. The overarching  theme is the analysis and optimal design of competition rules to improve the functioning of both goods and services markets as well as technology markets, and thus improving the well-being of society as a whole. In combination with innovation-friendly policy and the legal protection of intangible assets, optimal competition policy provides incentives for the development of new ideas and technologies without hampering competition by disproportionately restricting access for third parties. To this end, the Junior Research Group  studies the incentive effects that law and law enforcement have on the strategic behaviour of companies and use these insights to evaluate competition policy institutions and rules from an innovation economics and innovation policy perspective.

The group uses a broad range of economic tools and applies both theoretical and empirical methods. It provides economic policy advice based on sound scientific evidence and contributes evidence-based and theoretically sound findings to the debate on competition policy. At the same time, their scientific research is driven by questions and problems that have strong practical relevance. In this sense, the Junior Research Group works at the interface between research and policy advice, while being in dialogue with both the scientific community and economic policymakers – a fact that is also reflected in the group’s publication activities. The group’s researchers have published in top-class scientific journals such as the RAND Journal of Economics, the Journal of Industrial Economics, Industrial and Corporate Change, and the Journal of Law and Economics, as well as in practice-oriented journals such as Antitrust Bulletin and Information Economics and Policy.

Contact

Bernhard Ganglmair

Prof. Dr. Bernhard Ganglmair

Head of Junior Research Group Email bernhard.ganglmair@zew.de Phone +49 (0)621 1235-304
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