Welcome to the WEA conference
“Public Law and Economics:
Economic Regulation and Competition Policies

This conference is now closed

Introduction

The main subject discussed in this WEA Conference was the current challenges faced by economic regulation and competition policies 10 years after the beginning of the most recent world’s economic crises.

In the past decade, companies aimed to compete and/or cooperate with each other in a world where technologies are changing rapidly, digital economies have emerged, and markets are global in scope, but free market economy started to face protectionism. Also, they have gradually tried to recover from the impact of the crisis in a economic scenario of high uncertainty and financial turbulence. At the same time, governments, sector regulators, competition authorities, and central banks have been working to minimize the impact of the crisis on the economy, to stabilize the financial system, and to introduce and amend the regulations and institutions necessary to ensure that the crisis does not repeat itself.

Public Law and Economics studies the use of economic principles for the analysis of public law, and can be used to promote choices in policies and regulations that correct market failures, promote competition and increase gains in a given economy. The interaction between economic principles and public law is particularly important in a globalized context where new forms of market organization, the uncertainties of the digital economy, and new scenarios of abuse of economic power have emerged.

This WEA Conference therefore aimed to bring together renowned specialists in economic regulation, regulated sectors and competition law to debate those relevant issues. We believe that the discussions enabled academics and practitioners to: (i) discuss how sector regulators and competition authorities are interacting post-crises and how the economic analysis of law can help countries reach better regulation and competition policies; (ii) contribute with practical and theoretical references on the limits of economic power and forms of state intervention; (iii) deal with the uncertainties and challenges of the digital economy; (iv) gather relevant case studies and; (v) identify new trends in Law and Economics that have arisen post-crises.

Main topics

Topics of interest included, but were not limited to:

  • New post-crises trends on sector regulations and public policies
  • Financial regulation after crises
  • Legal transplant and legal borrowing
  • Digital economies and sector regulation
  • International, supranational and local changes on competition policies
  • Competition law and innovation
  • Competition law in Digital Markets
  • Economic analysis of cartels
  • Economic Regulation and Competition in developing countries
  • Regulatory assessment

Guide for first time visitors

Openness and flexibility are major trends in contemporary education, research, and business, influencing the whole spectrum of institutions and corporations across the globe. Indeed, technological innovations are bringing about a paradigm shift in contemporary livelihoods. Modes of interaction are becoming more open and flexible in terms of time, space, organization, infrastructure and requirements. With this background, the World Economics Association organizes conferences which are held on-line.

WEA CONFERENCES are OPEN ACCESS. The World Economics Association strives to make its conferences accessible for all people around the world. The aim of the WEA ONLINE CONFERENCES is to enlarge the number of participants and to extend the period of discussion to provide for more developed exchanges than in typical, location-based conferences.  WEA Conferences strive to be on the forefront of innovations in communicating and discussing high-quality research.

Each WEA CONFERENCE begins with a pre-conference stage with the announcement of the call, registration and selection of papers, culminating in a Discussion Forum. The interactive format of Conferences provide an online forum for visitors and commentators. All participants will be able to send comments on specific papers, or to contribute to a general discussion on the conference theme.

Each WEA ONLINE CONFERENCE is hosted by Maria Alejandra Madi, Chair of the WEA CONFERENCES. She selects the conference themes and Leaders with the expertise in the topic, and facilitates the process of the conference organization as well as the follow-up activities. The initial format of the WEA CONFERENCES was developed by Grazia Ietto-Gillies, whose ideas have continued to guide the current WEA CONFERENCES organizing team.

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