Sixth MaCCI Annual Conference at ZEW

On 16 and 17 March 2017, the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) and the University of Mannheim jointly organised the sixth annual conference of the Mannheim Centre for Competition and Innovation (MaCCI). About 100 participants, including many renowned researchers and practitioners, attended the event to discuss cutting-edge and highly relevant research issues with regard to competition and innovation from an economic and legal perspective.

The highlight of the conference marked the keynote speech by Professor Massimo Motta, PhD (Barcelona Graduate School of Economics), who spoke in great detail about his recent three-year activity as Chief Economist in the European Commission's Directorate-General for Competition (DG Comp).

Focus on cutting-edge topics such as price disparity clauses and big data

At the core of this year's conference were once again the parallel 30-minute sessions, featuring 43 cutting-edge economic and jurisprudential research contributions, which were presented by the respective authors and discussed by another researcher with a similar research focus. Particularly interesting were the sessions focusing on topics which are currently being widely discussed in academia, such as price disparity clauses, big data and platform markets. In a plenary session on the analysis of bidding competition in merger cases, Thilo Klein (Compass Lexecon), Giulio Federico, Ph.D. (DG Comp) and Dr. Alexander Rinne (Milbank) discussed the current work of competition authorities and consultancy firms in this area.

Just like in the previous years, the conference achieved its aim to promote the exchange between researchers from the fields of economics and law on the one hand, and between science and practice on the other hand. The seventh MaCCI Annual Conference is scheduled for March 2018. However, MaCCI will host a number of further events this year, such as the Mannheim Energy Conference on 11 and 12 May, as well as the ZEW/MaCCI Conference on the Economics of Innovation and Patenting on 15 and 16 May 2017.

Leibniz ScienceCampus Mannheim Centre for Competition and Innovation (MaCCI)

The Mannheim Centre for Competition and Innovation (MaCCI), funded by the State of Baden-Württemberg and the Leibniz Association, promotes the exchange between researchers from the fields of law and economy and thus provides fresh impetus in terms of competition policy, regulation, and innovation. MaCCI is a joint project of ZEW and the School of Law and Economics at the University of Mannheim. Core topics analysed by MaCCI include vertical competition restraints, abuse of market power, merger control, public and private enforcement of competition law, regulations in the telecommunications and energy market, as well as competition in the health sector.

For more information on MaCCI, please visit www.macci-mannheim.eu