This study investigates the pricing decisions of the UK food and beverages sector over 2007-2016. The markup model formulated by Hall (1988) and Roeger (1995) is employed where market power is expressed in terms of pricing decisions reflected by the difference between the price level and the marginal cost of production. The analysis is conducted under three steps: the first step estimates the markup ratio of the UK food and beverages sector over 2007-2016; the second step provides the price-cost margin of the 32 4 digit level NACE Rev.2 constituent industries over 2007-2016; and the last step tests the relationship between cross-sectional estimates of market power and the structural effects of concentration, liquidity and exports over 2009, 2011, 2015 and 2016. The results suggest the presence of imperfect competitive conduct in the sector, while the three structural effects appear to have a significant influence on the pricing decisions of the UK food and beverages industries.

This paper examines the influence of market power in the formation of retail and wholesale electricity prices in the UK over 1998-2012 on the basis of Vector Error Correction model (VECM). Market power is measured as the influence of the market share of the Big Six in a dynamic demand and supply VECM. The findings indicate that market power of the Big Six in the wholesale industry has a significant and large positive influence on the wholesale markup in the short-run. The long-run estimates support the arguments about 'revenue rebalancing' resulting from vertical integration. That is, low market power (and hence low revenues) in the wholesale industry leads to higher prices (hence higher revenues) in the retail industry. These findings are in contrast to the CMA's finding that no market power is exercised in the wholesale industry. Retail electricity prices are affected directly by both the wholesale and retail market concentration ratios in the long-run rather than indirectly through the wholesale markup. Overall, the findings in this paper provide support for the view that the UK electricity market exhibits significant anti-competitive conduct in both the retail and wholesale segments.

The main scope of the paper is to investigate the proposition that rising income inequality results in systemic financial instability in developed countries. In particular, 33 OECD (Organization for Economic Co‐operation and Development) countries are studied in a panel Vector Autoregression (VAR) framework analysis over 1995–2015. There is a growing literature on the effects of income inequality on financial crises. This study provides significant evidence in favour of a positive relationship between income inequality and financial fragility, when particular factors are controlled for. Complementary findings also suggest that (a) debt accumulation in the private sector significantly depends on credit expansion, (b) the debt levels of the private sector and households co‐move over time, and (c) financial deregulation significantly contributes to financial instability. Therefore, policymakers should take into account regulatory reforms that will promote institutional and financial innovations to restrict debt accumulation and render the financial system more robust to destabilising shocks.

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of the following article: Chrysovalantis Amountzias, ???An Investigation of the Degree of Market Power in the Greek Manufacturing and Service Industries???, Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, first published online 2 February 2017. Under embargo. Embargo end date: 2 February 2019. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10842-017-0245-4This paper investigates the degree of market power in the Greek manufacturing and service industries over the period 1970???2007. The markup model developed by Hall (1988) and Roeger (1995) is taken into consideration where market power is expressed as the difference between the selling price and the marginal cost of production. The analysis will be conducted in three steps; the first step estimates the price-cost margin of the manufacturing and services industries over 1970???2007; the second step applies the cross section specification under which the markup ratio is obtained for the 23 manufacturing and 26 service 2-digit ISIC sectors of the panel sample; and the third step estimates the price-cost margin of the manufacturing and services industries for each year over 1973???2007 by employing the Hall-Roeger time series specification. The empirical findings suggest that both industries exert a positive markup ratio; however, the service industry appears to be less competitive than the manufacturing industry

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