This paper revisits Neil Wrigley’s influential research that explored the corporate restructuring of the US food retail sector, which was characterised by a focus on the spatial implications of merger activity, market concentration and competition regulation. It assesses the importance of this scholarship in a contemporary context, tracking these competitive and regulatory trends from a decade ...

This paper analyses whether prices and trade-flows in the international market for metallurgical coals were subject to non-competitive conduct in the period 2008 to 2010. To do so, I develop mathematical programming models – a Stackelberg model, two varieties of a Cournot model, and a perfect competition model – for computing spatial equilibria in international resource markets. Results are ana...

"...it is clear that RTOs are needed to resolve impediments to fully competitive markets." 2 The Commission identified the key role of RTOs in supporting competitive electricity markets. No matter what the name or governance structure, there must be an organization responsible for key coordination activities needed to make a market work. This is not an option, and the market cannot solve the pr...

We consider a pollution permits market in which there are a large polluting firm plays and a fringe of competitive firms. To smooth compliance towards the longrun emissions goal, firms are initially allocated a stock (i.e., bank) of permits to be gradually consumed. We first show how the large firm can credibly manipulate the spot market in subgame-perfect equilibrium. Motivated by features obs...

Much research on automated market design has focused on auction mechanisms that require both a centralised auctioneer and strategic behaviour of individuals to achieve competitive outcomes. This new research investigates the performance of several market types in terms of global efficiency and individual trader outcomes in a continuous environment. It is argued that under these conditions a quo...

We consider a barter market with multiple types of indivisible goods. Konishi et al. [J. Math. Econ. 35 (2001) 1–15] showed that the core of this market may be empty. We define a normal form game for this market and consider its equilibrium outcomes. Assuming separable strict preferences, we show that the game has a unique Coalition-proof Nash allocation. This Coalition-proof Nash allocation is...

This paper studies the nature of price relationships among selected prices of five fats and oils (palm oil, soybean, coconut, fish oils and tallow) to provide empirical evidence as to the competitive structure of the fats and oils market. The fats and oils market is highly competitive and price is shown to be simultaneously discovered by the market with minimum lags and distortions. Statistical...