Research Group „Empirical Industrial Organization“

Members of Junior Research Group

• Dr. Ullrich Heimeshoff (head)
• Veit Böckers
• Johannes Muck
• Anna Lu
• Andrea Müller
• Dennis Rickert
• Lars Zeigermann
• Anne Kathrin Barth (former member)
• Hans Christian Müller (former member)

Foundation and purposes of the research group "Empirical Industrial Organization"

Founded in October 2009, the research group "Empirical Industrial Organization" is jointly financed by North Rhine-Westphalia's Ministry of innovation, science, research, and technology and the Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf. The research group is embedded in the Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE). Its research focuses on the empirical analysis of competition problems in Germany. In particular, the application of modern statistics and econometric techniques on competition cases - a practice that is relatively underdeveloped in Germany as compared to the USA or some other European countries.

The research group's activities comprise five main areas:

1. The analysis of competition and consumer behavior in network industries, particularly energy and telecommunication markets. (Anne-Kathrin Barth, Veit Böckers, Ulrich Heimeshoff, Andrea Müller and Johannes Muck)

2. Developing of screening methods to detect anti-competitive behavior. (Veit Böckers and Ulrich Heimeshoff)

3. Studying the effects of economic policies on competition and consumer behavior, e.g. analysing the effects of car scrappage schemes, regarding the consumption of the citizens as well as the effect on competition between car manufacturers. (Ulrich Heimeshoff and Andrea Müller)

4. Integrating behavioral economics and industrial organization. (Hans Christian Müller)

5. Consumer power and competition of the retail sector (Ulrich Heimeshoff, Anna Lu, Dennis Rickert and Lars Zeigermann)

A key characteristic of the research group's activities is the employment of a wide array of different methodologies paired with the conviction that a detailed understanding of consumer behavior is a key prerequisite for appropriately analyzing competition processes in various kinds of markets. The research group presents its results on both national and international conferences and subsequently publishes them in economic journals and edited volumes. Furthermore, the research group is characterized by its close links with practitioners. Members of the group frequently participate in joint research projects with industrial companies, organizations, and public institutions, such as, for instance, the federal network agency, federal ministry of finance, or the federal ministry of economics.

Report/ Publications

The following report presents members of the research group, as well as their publications, conference participations and lectures held.