TILEC – Tilburg University 1 TILEC Annual Report 2004 TILEC – Tilburg University 2 Mailing Address: TILEC Tilburg Law and Economics Center P.O. Box 90153 5000 LE Tilburg The Netherlands Phone: + 31-13-466 8789 Fax: + 31-13-466 8047 e-mail: [email protected] www: www.tilburguniversity.nl/tilec/ Visiting Address Warandelaan 2 Building Montesquieu 5037 AB Tilburg The Netherlands TILEC – Tilburg University 3 CONTENTS FOREWORD ................................................................................................................. 4 1 TILEC IN 2004...................................................................................................... 5 1.1 Overview ............................................................................................................. 5 1.2 Internal developments........................................................................................... 5 1.3 TILEC and the outside world ............................................................................... 8 1.4 Highlights of 2004 .............................................................................................. 10 1.4.1 Major Research efforts......................................................................... 10 1.4.2 The AFM Chair .................................................................................... 13 1.4.3 Seminars and other events.................................................................... 13 1.4.4 Education.............................................................................................. 16 2 PEOPLE............................................................................................................... 18 2.1 General................................................................................................................ 18 2.2 Board .................................................................................................................. 18 2.3 Visitors................................................................................................................ 18 2.4 New TILEC members......................................................................................... 19 2.4.1 Junior members .................................................................................... 19 2.4.2 Senior members.................................................................................... 19 2.5 Members leaving TILEC .................................................................................... 20 2.6 Overview ............................................................................................................ 20 2.7 Awards, grants and honors ................................................................................. 22 3 PUBLICATIONS ................................................................................................ 24 4 ACTIVITIES ....................................................................................................... 28 APPENDIX A: PUBLICATIONS ............................................................................ 29 APPENDIX B: ACTIVITIES.................................................................................... 57 TILEC – Tilburg University 4 Foreword In its attempt to make a new start for the Lisbon Strategy and to make Europe the most competitive region in the world by the year 2010, the European Commission headed by President Barroso has identified several flagship actions to make Europe a more attractive place to work and invest. As The Economist noted in its March 16, 2005 article “From Lisbon to Brussels”, “the biggest failings in the euro area remain microeconomic, not macroeconomic” and indeed several of the priorities of the Commission are in this area. It is also realized that more intense interaction between science and policy is needed to reach the overall goal. With its research on the cross-roads between science and policy, and law and economics, TILEC aims to contribute to reaching the Lisbon goals. In particular, the TILEC research programs are directly related to two flagship actions of the Commission: the extension and deepening of the internal market and the attempt to improve regulation and to cut red-tape. TILEC was set up in 2002 with the aim to conduct cutting-edge interdisciplinary research on the law and economics of market regulation and it began its operations in earnest in 2003. This report describes what was achieved during our second year of activity and it also provides an outlook to the activities in 2005. As compared to 2003, the number of activities and publications went up, amongst others thanks to a contract that was signed with Essent, one of the largest energy companies in the Netherlands. We thank TILEC members and staff for their contributions to our profile and our output in 2004. With exciting developments taking place in the policy sphere (the market assessments in telecoms, the EU Microsoft decision, and the decentralization and economization of EU competition law as of May 1, 2004, to name just a few) and with science delivering various new and unexpected insights, we found ourselves again in a highly stimulating and challenging environment. We hope that this report may provide a glimpse of the exciting research environment that TILEC has to offer. Eric van Damme, Pierre Larouche TILEC – Tilburg University 5 1. TILEC in 2004 1.1 Overview The Tilburg Law and Economics Center (TILEC) is a joint research center created in 2002 by the Faculties of Economics and Business Administration (FEB) and of Law (FRW) of Tilburg University. Its mission is twofold. For the participating researchers from the two Faculties, TILEC provides support for and stimulates joint research activities, thereby enhancing the intellectual climate for research at Tilburg University. Towards the outside, TILEC aims to be a point for reference in the Netherlands and beyond for research in its areas of activity, through its scientific work, its events and its contract research. TILEC focuses on three main research areas: 1. Market design and related institutional matters, including the role of the State in relation to markets, privatization and liberalization, public procurement, auctions and public-private partnerships. 2. Competition law and regulation, including the workings of competition and competition law, the regulation of network markets (telecommunications, energy, etc.), the relationship between competition law and regulation, regulatory agencies and public service regulation. 3. Corporate governance and finance, including regulatory competition in that area and the relationship between corporate governance, competition and growth. 1.2 Internal developments In 2004, TILEC could welcome 13 new members, 10 at the junior (Ph.D. level) and 3 at the senior level. The growth at the Ph.D. level is particularly noteworthy. Two of the TILEC – Tilburg University 6 Ph.D. positions are being financed by NWO, the Dutch Foundation for Scientific Research, through grants that were obtained competitively. One Ph.D. position is financed through the ECGTN, the European Corporate Governance Training Network, one student is self-financed, and the remainder are regular Ph.D. positions at the faculties participating in TILEC. At the end of 2004, two new Ph.D. positions were advertised. Starting in 2005, the successful candidates will work on the regulation of gambling, paid from a grant that the Dutch Staatsloterij has provided to Tilburg University. In 2004, there was one Ph.D. defense related to TILEC. On December 3, Peter Trepte defended his thesis “Regulating Procurement; understanding the ends and means of public procurement regulation”, that he had written under the guidance of Leigh Hancher. The contract that TILEC had signed with Essent in 2003 allowed us to hire Gert Brunekreeft as a fulltime senior member. During 2004, TILEC hosted two long-term visitors, both paid out of the EU’s Marie Curie Training Site Program. Andrei Medvedev (Cerge, Prague) worked on remedies in merger case and Roberto Galbiati (Siena) worked on topics in behavioral law and economics. Two of our members (Chris Jansen and Karim Sadrieh) were appointed as professors in universities outside Tilburg, while three other TILEC members decided to pursue their careers elsewhere. The fact that our members are in demand testifies to the fertile breeding ground that TILEC provides. At the personal level, several honors, rewards and promotions can be mentioned. Jan Boone was promoted to full professor at FEB, Wieland Müller won a prestigious Vidi grant of NWO for his research project “Healthy competition and wrongful behavior”, Erik Vermeulen won the SNS Bank award for the best Ph.D. thesis defended at Tilburg University during 2003, Eric van Damme was elected as member of KNAW, the Dutch Academy of Sciences, and he was appointed as Fellow of the European Economic Associated. Lans Bovenberg’s Netspar initiative was very successful. At the end of the year, when the Netspar partners signed the agreement, Lans, together with his co- directors Arie Kapteyn and Theo Nijman, had been able to increase the initial prize money associated with the Spinoza Prize (¼ 1,5 million) to an endowment of ¼ million. Unfortunately, because of the new demands on Lans’ time, Lans had to TILEC – Tilburg University 7 discontinue his TILEC membership as of 2005. Of course, cooperation will continue in the future, both at the personal and at the institutional level. Academic highlights during the year were the seminars given by Oliver Hart