Research

Our activities

Conferences and workshops

The CCRP regularly organises conferences and workshops on key issues in competition and regulation. They are aimed at providing a regular interchange between academics and practitioners from different institutions.

Recent CCRP workshops

CCRP hosts Special Policy session on Financial Regulation, CRESSE 2011, Rhodes, Greece

The CCRP hosted a Special Policy session on Financial Regulation during the CRESSE 2011 conference on Saturday 2nd July 2011 in Rhodes, Greece. The session was co-organized with CRESSE in the light of the recent European financial crisis and it focused on the causes and consequences of the financial crisis and the subsequent initial steps to redesign the organization of financial regulation in order to achieve financial stability at a national, European and global level.

Invited Speakers to the Special Policy Session included Professor Kern Alexander (University of Zurich), Professor Geoffrey Wood (CASS, City University), Dr Thomas Huertas (FSA and European Banking Authority) and Professor Giancarlo Spagnolo (University of Rome "Tor Vergata"). The speakers addressed the theme of the principles of designing the European financial regulation system and also talked more broadly around the principles that should govern the global financial system, its major institutions as well as the strengths and weaknesses within the financial framework. Please click on the attached programme (pdf) for full details of the 3-day Cresse conference.

Eleventh Workshop in Competition and Regulatory Policy, Aston Business School, Birmingham

The 11th CCRP workshop took place on Friday 11 February 2011. The workshop was hosted by the Aston Centre for Critical Infrastructure and Services (ACCIS) at the Aston Business School in Birmingham. The CCRP workshop was preceded by an ACCIS workshop on Thursday 10 February entirely dedicated to the Water and Sewage industry and in particular the current debate on the restructuring and regulatory reform of the sector in England & Wales.


Water Policy & Regulation in England and Wales after the Cave and Walker Reviews:  a post-election perspective

To mark the five years since the establishment of the Centre for Competition and Regulatory Policy, and the running of the 10th bi-annual workshop the CCRP Director, Dr Xeni Dassiou, and Mr Jon Stern (CCRP Senior Visiting Fellow) organised a closed (by invitation only) pre-event to the workshop on Thursday 8 July 2010. This was entitled "Water Policy and Regulation in E&W after the Cave and Walker Reviews: a Post-Election Perspective". The discussion meeting was co-funded by Cambridge Economic Policy Associates (CEPA), The City Research & Enterprise Unit (CREU) and the School of Social Sciences. The event was co-sponsored by the Environment Agency and OFWAT.
 
Please see the Water Policy Discussion Meeting programme/invitation and the list of meeting participants.  The invitees were senior policy makers, company managers and regulators, academics and other stakeholders. The morning closed event was followed by the first afternoon of the CCRP Summer 2010 Research Workshop which also included a water economics session. Both took place at City University (College Building) on St John Street.
 
The meeting was opened by the Deputy Vice Chancellor of City University Professor Dinos Arcoumanis. This was followed by a short introduction on Water Reform Prospects and Priorities in the new Parliament by Cathryn Ross, Director of Markets at Ofwat.

The meeting comprised of two panel sessions:
1. The Walker Review, Social Tariffs and Compulsory Metering; and
2. Water Trading, Networks and Network Access.
The invited speakers were drawn from Ofwat, water company senior managers and academics who have been involved in recent water discussions. Please click for short biographical details.

Panel Chairs:
Chris Bolt, CB, PPP Arbiter (Panel 1)
Professor Martin Cave, Director, Centre for Management under Regulation, Warwick Business School (Panel 2) Speakers Panel 1

George Day - Director of Metering and Charging, Ofwat
Robert Weeden - Non Executive Director, South East Water
Graeme Sims - Director for Regulation, United Utilities
Tony Smith - Chief Executive, Consumer Council for Water  Speakers Panel 2

Jon Ashley - Competition Reform Programme, Ofwat
Tony Ballance - Director of Strategy and Regulation - Severn Trent Water
Colin Harley - Director of Regulation & Competition, Southern Water Services
Jon Stern - Senior Visiting Fellow, CCRP

Aston Business School CCRP summer workshop Thursday 9 and Friday 10 July 2009: summary report

Click to download the workshop programme. Links to some of the papers presented in the workshop will be posted in September 2009.

The conference was very successful with record numbers of papers submitted. As always has attracted a diverse audience and participants, including some high profile and senior figures in regulation and competition.

The director, Dr Xeni Dassiou, wishes to thank the local organisers, Dr David Saal and Dr Monica Giulietti for hosting the two day event. Participants to both days included academics from a number of universities and consultancies in the UK, Germany, France, Japan, Netherlands and staff from regulatory bodies (ORR, Ofwat, Ofgem, Environment Agency, CAA, Water Industry Commission for Scotland, Defra, etc), as well as independent engineering consultants and consultancy staff.

The first day of the conference was dedicated to the topic of Water Regulation and Competition Policy after the Cave Review. The summer conference's Birmingham location (where the offices of Ofwat are) and also Ofwat's upcoming draft price determination (expected on the 23rd July 2009) made this a very topical and extremely interesting issue currently in the news.

Research papers on the topic were presented from staff at Ofwat and academics and consultants from the UK, Germany, Japan, France and the Netherlands. This included a paper commissioned by the World Bank on the costs of adapting to climate change for the electricity and other water industries. The discussants of the papers were from senior staff in regulatory bodies as well as academics from universities and independent organisations.

This was followed in the afternoon by the conference key note address by Professor Martin Cave (Warwick Business School), author of the Cave Review of Competition and Innovation in Water Markets and a roundtable discussion with participants including Martin Cave, Ofwat's Director of Markets, Cathryn Ross and the Chief Economist of the Environment Agency. Ronan Palmer (an affiliate member of the CCRP).

Members of the audience included Alan Sutherland, Chief Executive of the Water Industry Commission for Scotland and other senior staff from regulatory bodies and water companies (South Staff Water Plc, Severn Trent, etc)

We have previously run several research workshops.  For details and access to presentations and papers, please visit Research Workshops.

Training

As of February 2008, the Centre for Competition and Regulation in the Department of Economics secured a contract to provide training courses in the Economics of Competition and Regulation for the staff of the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (OFGEM). The contract is for a period of three years (with the option of extending for a further period of one year) and the teaching is provided by Dr Xeni Dassiou and Dr Albert Banal Estanol. This is the second consecutive time such contract in economics training that the department has signed with OFGEM; in both cases this followed a tender procedure which Economics won.

The CCRP designs tailor-made training courses for regulatory offices, competition authorities, government organisations, law firms, regulated companies as well as non-regulated companies. For more information, please contact us (see details on the right of this page).

City University Economics Department also runs a path-breaking and highly regarded MSc programme in the Economics of Competition and Regulation. It has been running since 1997 and draws students from the UK and around the world and from a wide range of institutions. For more information, visit the MSc Economic Regulation & Competition course page.