This book addresses the important issue of food prices across EU Member States. Although recent attention has focused on events in world commodity markets following the spikes in world prices in 2007-2008 and 2011, there has been comparatively little attention addressing food price dynamics at the retail level. This volume addresses the characteristics of retail food price behaviour and the nature and drivers of price transmission across the EU. There are several inter-related features of the research reported here. First, the volume reports the characteristics of retail food inflation across the EU and the extent to which it differs from non-food inflation. Second, given the different experience of food inflation across EU Member States, it details the process of price transmission as shocks from upstream and world markets are passed through the food sector to the retail stage. Third, it addresses how the extent and nature of price transmission is determined by various aspects of competition throughout the domestic food sector and how the nature of vertical contracting between stages can determine the price transmission process. Finally, it outlines the potential of high-frequency, product-specific scanner data to address price dynamics and adjustment issues and how scanner data can also be used to measure food price inflation. The book will be of interest to researchers on price transmission and competition issues in the EU and, given the wider interest on these issues coupled with the novel use of scanner data, to researchers further afield. The contributions will also be of interest to policymakers and stakeholders as they seek to make sense of, and to address, regulation issues as they relate to the food sector.

OECD's 2012 Economic Survey of the Euro examines recent economic developments, policy and prospects. In addition it includes special chapters cover Euro Area imbalances and Euro Area governance and structural reforms and their short-term impact.

The distributive trades sector, which is primarily accounted for by wholesale and retail trade, is not only economically important in its own right, but also relevant to monetary policy. Ultimately, it is retailers who set the actual prices of most consumer goods. They are the main interface between producers of consumer goods and consumers, with around half of private consumption accounted for by retail trade. The "value added" of this intermediation service can be substantial, as this accounts for, on average, about 25% of consumer prices. The purpose of this report is to analyse the structural features of the distributive trades sector and the developments within it, as well as how these may infl uence prices and price dynamics. Several aspects are relevant.^From a monetary policy point of view, increasing the degree of competition in the distributive trades sector may have effects not only on price levels, but also on price dynamics, via a reduction in mark-ups, an increase in price fl exibility and a greater and more rapid pass-through of changes in costs to prices. Structural developments, such as the increasing market penetration of hard discounters, online trade and private label brands, the role of buying groups and the relative bargaining power between producers and retailers are of great importance to consumers and price determination. In addition, these may have implications for the measurement of consumer prices and inflation.^More generally, the distributive trades sector plays an important role in determining cross-country differentials in productivity growth, both within and outside Europe: the sector has accounted for over one-third of the widening gap in aggregate productivity between the euro area and the United States since the mid-1990s. A specifi c contribution of this report is the use of a wide range of data sources, including a unique dataset on the location of over 100,000 individual grocery stores across most of the euro area, to investigate how to better measure the degree of competition and concentration in this sector, and to compare sector developments from a national, regional and local perspective.

This work contains the papers of the Tenth Conference on “Antitrust between EU Law and national law”, held in Treviso on May 17 and 18 , 2012 under the patronage of the European Lawyers Union – Union des Avocats Européens (UAE), the Associazione Italiana per la Tutela della Concorrenza - the Italian section of the Ligue Internationale du Droit de la Concurrence (LIDC)-, the Associazione Italiana Giuristi di Impresa (AIGI), the European Company Lawyers Association (ECLA), and the Associazione Antitrust Italiana (AAI). Some of the papers have been extensively reviewed and updated by the authors prior to publication. Contributions contained in this volume are the result of an in-depth analysis and study of the most salient issues arising from the application of antitrust rules, carried out by experienced and high-ranking professionals, company lawyers, academics and EU/national institutional representatives who attended the Conference. They deal with extremely topical issues, lying at the heart of current antitrust debate. Some of the most contemporary topics include those relative to the large-scale distribution sector and the control of concentrations at both national and European level. Ample consideration is also given to salient antitrust issues encountered in undertakings’ day-to-day business life, as well as to the future of antitrust in the global economy, also in the light of the new powers recently attributed to the Italian Antitrust Authority to challenge administrative acts. This volume also includes some precious insights on the assessment and quantification of damages in antitrust infringements, from both an economic and legal perspective, as well as reflections on the role of judges in the application of antitrust law, also following the principles set forth by the European Court of Human Rights in the well-known Menarini case.

OECD's 2014 review of the economy of the Czech Republic examines recent economic developments, prospects and policies. Special chapters cover completing the transition to a competitive domestic economy and strengthening skill use and school-to-work transitions.