Rationale and Objectives
Competition Policy and Network Industry Regulation have undergone significant changes in the past two decades. There are, recently, dramatic changes in the regulation of digital markets in many countries. These changes have been accompanied by an intellectually vibrant economic literature.
Economists have developed new theories to characterize firm behavior and to assess which market contexts warrant government intervention – see for example Prof. D. Whinston (2011 CRESSE Keynote Speaker) “Lectures on Antitrust Economics”, MIT Press (2007), Prof. M. Motta (CRESSE Lecturer and Member of the Scientific Committee, 2006-2010) “Competition Policy: Theory and Practice”, Cambridge University Press, 2004, and Prof. Belleflamme, Paul, and Prof. Martin Peitz (CRESSE Keynote Speaker 2025) “The economics of platforms”, Cambridge University Press, 2021. Traditional views of which situations warrant intervention have changed substantially. The economic approach has gained ground both in policy making and in case law, sometimes challenging conventional views.
The aim of the Summer School and the Lawyers Course is to familiarize participants with the new economic literature and with recent legal developments and to establish a clear link between the new theories and the day to day work of practitioners. It enables participants to face and answer difficult questions about the practical matters they come across in their work in an economically and legally informed manner. They are designed for Professionals (Public Officers, Managers, Policy Makers, Law and Economic Consultants or Analysts), working in the wider areas of Competition Policy and Network Industry Regulation, in:
- Competition Authorities and in Regulatory Bodies.
- Ministries or International Organizations (like the European Commission).
- Economic or Law Consultancies.
- Private and Public firms and organizations affected by interference in the form of sectoral regulation or antitrust and merger policies.
Postgraduate (and Doctoral) students specialising in Competition, Regulation and Privatisation are also encouraged to apply (at significantly reduced special rates).
A number of teaching methods are used that have been selected to meet the aims of the course and intended learning outcomes, exploiting the organisers’ long experience in designing and delivering Executive training.
The Competition Agency Leaders Executive Programme (CALEP) co-organized with OECD is a yearly executive training taught by eminent competition professors, lawyers, economists and members of the OECD secretariat. The course is tailored to be an essential professional development opportunity for Leaders / Heads and emerging Leaders of competition agencies, Commissioners, Board Members and Senior Officials (Directors General and other high-level officers) of competition and other regulatory agencies throughout the world. A multidisciplinary approach is followed, with courses in competition economics and law and in management taught by leading experts with deep expertise and vast practical experience in competition law and its enforcement from academia, policy world and from the private and public sector.
CRESSE offers each year a number of Advanced Short Courses in specific topics of Competition Policy (the topics may change from year to year). When taken on a stand-alone basis, these are targeted to the more experienced professionals working in competition authorities or regulatory bodies or in consultancy companies who are trained in economics at undergraduate and postgraduate level (including chief economists, directors of economics, senior case handlers and senior analysts). They are also directed to those interested in competition economics who, while already trained at postgraduate level in microeconomic theory and industrial organization, may have had limited opportunity for focused study in the field.