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Competition Analysis course attracts professionals and academics from around the world
In May, the Barcelona School of Economics held a three-day intensive professional course on Quantitative Methods for Competition Analysis. The course provided participants with a detailed understanding of recent empirical methods to measure market power and competition, with applications to market definition. Merger analysis and damages from anticompetitive conduct.
The course director is BSE Research Professor Massimo Motta, former Chief Competition Economist at the European Commission's Directorate General for Competition.
The faculty for this course included some of the leading academic economists in the area of industrial organization and competition policy, as well as practitioners with extensive experience on quantitative methods in competition cases.
Course lecturers
- Benoît Durand (Partner at RBB Economics)
- Szabolcs Lorincz (Economist at the European Commission)
- Helena Perrone (Assistant Professor at UPF)
- Frank Verboven (Professor at the University of Leuven)
In addition to the intensive course sessions, the faculty and Professor Motta were on hand to continue discussions in more depth during breaks and meals.
Course participants
The course was attended by 39 participants who work as economists, lawyers, policy makers and managers working in the areas of competition policy and regulation, in 15 different countries across Europe, Asia and South America. Some of the companies and institutions represented included:
- Accura (Denmark)
- Avance Attorneys Ltd. (Finland)
- BBVA (Chile)
- Belgian Competition Authority (Belgium)
- CNMC (Spain)
- Competition and Markets Authority (United Kingdom)
- Competition Commission (Hong Kong)
- Competition Council of Lithuania (Lithuania)
- Danish Competition Authority (Denmark)
- E.CA Economics (Belgium & Germany)
- Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority (Finland)
- Japan Fair Trade Commission (Japan)
- Norwegian Competition Authority (Norway)
- Oxera Consulting LLP (United Kingdom)
- PricewaterhouseCoopers (United Kingdom)
- RBB Economics (France & United Kingdom)
- Swedish Competition Authority (Sweden)
Ana Viejo González, Economist at the Office of the Chief Economic Advisor (CNMC) in Madrid commented that “the course offers the opportunity to deepen in the most relevant economic techniques for competition analysis both from a theoretical perspective and applied to the daily work of a competition authority. The case-based practical exercises are particularly useful.”
Petri Rouvinen (PhD in Economics), Senior Economist at Avance Attorneys Ltd. in Finland commented that the “course well exceeded my expectations. As an economist, it was a good refresher course of both microeconomic theory and econometrics; most importantly, it was a superb lead-in into applications of quantitative analysis in legal contexts. Fellow lawyers attending the course seem to have been equally impressed.” He also added that the course “is taught by leading experts – both practitioners and academics – in competition economics. The orientation of the course is practical but nevertheless rigorous in terms of both microeconomic theory and juridical principles. I cannot think of a better way of getting up-to-speed on how quantitative methods are applied upon dealing with authorities and courts. A superb course, highly recommended!! Not to mention the lovely venue in beloved Barcelona.”
Upcoming Professional Courses in competition at the Barcelona School of Economics for the 2019-20 academic year, will be announced shortly.
See also
> Competition Economics: Abuse of Dominance intensive course overview
> Competition and Market Regulation Master’s Program