Regulation - The ESRC Centre for Competition Policy
Regulation - The ESRC Centre for Competition Policy
(i) The ESRC Centre for Competition Policy (CCP)
This internationally recognised centre has a 10-year grant from the ESRC with £3,194,911 of funding secured for the first five years from September 2004. Professor Catherine Waddams is the full-time Director of the Centre. CCP engages in interdisciplinary research that is academically rigorous and policy relevant. Its practices and its allocation of resources facilitate the interactions that enable this research and help develop the next generation of researchers of competition policy. The Centre employs 12 research and administrative staff, with a further nine Faculty members and 12 PhD student members. In 2006 members of the Centre produced 36 outputs, gave over 50 presentations (more than half overseas), hosted two academic conferences (on Consumer Behaviour and Bounded Rationality and Cases in European Competition Policy: The Economic Analysis), ran a PhD Workshop, held 41 seminars, with 14 by external speakers and was visited by 17 external academics. Visits by practitioners included senior staff from the Competition Commission, OFT, US Department of Justice, Consumers Association and Bank of England. CCP members have ongoing advisory/membership links with competition agencies and regulatory bodies (Competition Commission, OFT, DTI, DCA, the EC). Other organisations that have consulted the CCP on its research include: OECD, Ofcom, Moneyfacts, Network of European Energy Regulators, Turkish Energy Regulator, Turkish Competition Commission, Irish Competition Authority, AEGG (Italian Regulatory Authority for Energy and Gas) and EC DG TREN (Transport & Energy). Work by Professor Catherine Waddams has advanced our understanding of the impact of consumer choice within regulated industry environments and demonstrates that market power persists despite increased choice. The clear policy implication is that strong regulation is necessary even when the number of providers is increased. Further work on price discrimination and price caps within regulated industries has informed the policy-making of the Competition Commission and the European Commission. CCP StudentshipsCCP invites applications for up to four fully funded (3-year) PhD studentships, including one ESRC quota award place, from October 2008. Full details here.
(ii) Financial Regulation
Ian Dewing and Peter Russell have undertaken research on the regulation of accounting, audit, corporate governance, and the supervision of the financial services industry. All research projects have been funded by professional accountancy and actuarial bodies. Their research has advanced our understanding of the dual role played by professions as private actors in public regulation at national, European and international levels. This work is important and timely in the aftermath of the collapse of Enron, Worldcom and Andersens. Well before the intense interest surrounding the resulting Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, research in this area began at NBS with a grant from the ICAEW to investigate the regulation of listed company audit. Ian and Peters next project investigated the dual private and public roles of auditors and was funded by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS). Their research was extended with two further projects. The first concerned the roles of actuaries and auditors in UK insurance supervision. Funded by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFA), it importantly identified the extent to which the regulator was able to influence and change private and professional governance structures. The second project investigated the role of auditors in Swiss banking supervision and was also funded by ICAS. Currently, a new Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) funded project, that arose from the ICAS and IFA projects examines the governance of with-profits UK life insurers.
(iii) Small Firm Insolvency Regulation
Professor Naresh R. Pandits research on small firm insolvency regulation has evaluated rehabilitation mechanisms, particularly the UK Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) which is part of the Enterprise Act 2002. Funding from the ICAEW was secured for this. That study, together with David Milman (Lancaster University), Andrew Griffiths (Manchester University) and Gary Cook (Liverpool University), investigated why the take-up of CVAs has not been greater, identified the factors that influence CVA success and failure and surveyed CVA practice. The survey is the largest and most comprehensive of its kind: it identifies the characteristics of insolvency regulation that can promote the survival of viable small firms that are experiencing temporary financial difficulties. The work has attracted policy-maker (Department of Trade and Industry), professional body (ICAEW and R3- Association of Business Recovery Professionals) and practitioner (BDO Stoy Hayward) interest. An international dimension is being added to this work by a doctoral student who is researching insolvency and turnaround in Finland. Outputs include a report for the ICAEW and three journal papers.
