NEWS

Prof Willem Boshoff published an opinion piece in the Business Day today, setting out major concerns with the Competition Amendment Bill, which was tabled recently in the South African parliament. Click here to read the piece.

The CCLE invites applications for full-time PhD studies in economics, commencing in 2019. The applications are administered by the Graduate School for Economic and Management Sciences (GEM) at Stellenbosch University. For information about the funding and the GEM application process, please visit http://www.sun.ac.za/english/faculty/economy/gem/about . The CCLE research themes (which appear together with other research themes of the Department of Economics) are (i) The empirical and theoretical analysis of collusion, and (ii) The economics of antitrust and competition policy enforcement. Please contact Prof Willem Boshoff (wimpie2@sun.ac.za) with questions about the research themes.

Prof Willem Boshoff, co-director of the CCLE, co-authored an opinion piece in the Business Day on the implications of competition among South African universities for the regulation of university fees: https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/2018-05-30-compare-like-with-like-when-reining-in-high-cost-of-tertiary-education/

The Centre for Competition Law and Economics (CCLE), situated in the Department of Economics at Stellenbosch University, promotes research and teaching in competition law and economics. The Centre has obtained funding for a new research project on collusion in non-price variables, including capacity. Applications are invited for a twelve-month, full-time postdoctoral research fellowship. No teaching is involved. Applicants should meet the following requirements: (1) A PhD in economics from a European/North American/Australian/South African university. (2) Strong quantitative skills, including deep familiarity with dynamic game theory. This is a crucial requirement, as the project will rely, inter alia, on advanced game-theoretic modelling. (3) A research focus on collusion, preferably with an emphasis on non-price competition. (4) An academic record that suggests the capability of generating high-quality publications in front-ranking journals. The successful applicant will be expected to collaborate with staff and doctoral students of the CCLE on the research project, participate in all Centre activities, and may also continue his/her own previous research. The working language will be English. Period: The starting date is between June and September 2018, but negotiable. Remuneration: Negotiable. Please send your application by 30 April 2018 to Prof Willem Boshoff.  

The CCLE hosted an international symposium on imperfect forms of collusion on 12 and 13 January at the STIAS conference venue in Stellenbosch. The participants considered various forms of collusion different from traditional hard-core price-fixing cartels from both an economics, legal and criminological perspective. A session was also committed to discussing how the concept of ‘agreement’ differs between South Africa, Russia, South Korea, the EU and the US. Prof Willem Boshoff, co-director of the CCLE, and Prof Johannes Paha from the Justus-Liebig-University in Giessen, co-organized the two-day event. Invited specialists included Bill Kovacic, John Connor and Maarten Pieter Schinkel. Competition practitioners, including from the South African Competition Commission, also attended. For a complete summary of the event topics and speakers, click here.

On 12 and 13 January 2018 die CCLE will host its first symposium, dealing with the law and economics of imperfect forms of collusion. Coordinated behaviour among competitors may take a variety of subtle forms and this symposium seeks to explore various aspects of such behaviour from legal, economics, and sociological perspectives. Click here to view event information