ComPeTITIon is a basic tenet of a free market economy which is why, since the early 20th century, the Americans have taken such a dim view of monopoly and oligopoly powers. The US has shown no mercy in breaking up the big monopolies, be they Standard oil, which smashed into at least 17 companies, or the telecoms giant AT&T. one might have hoped that David Cameron's government, which binds together the laissez-faire principles of Conservativism with the economic liberalism of the LibDems, might have shown the same attitude when it came to reviewing news Corporation's in-house bid for BSkyB. Instead, because of a foolish personal misjudgement by the Business Secretary Vince Cable, it has rolled over in the face of the murdoch media juggernaut. Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, having been ha...
THE UK's Big Four accountancy firms have been accused of fuelling the financial crisis through complacency and dereliction of duty. A House of Lords Committee found that Pricewaterhouse-Coopers, Deloitte, KPMG and Ernst & Young are operating an oligopoly over FTSE 100 companies and called for a competition probe into their stranglehold on the market.
NOW the wedding is over, the Tube is back to normal. Six days of strikes are threatened from next Monday, with more to follow in June. Even if, as now seems possible, a lastminute deal is thrashed out to avoid industrial action, Bob Crow's Tube drivers remain the investment bankers of London's working class. They run a tidy oligopoly from which they make oodles of cash. Whenever they hit a spot of bother, they demand money with menaces from the public purse -- and know they will get it. Next week's strike is clever. It is not over money but over the sacking by Transport for London (TfL) of two union militants, one for breaking health and safety rules and the other for abusive behaviour. TfL contrived foolishly to lose an industrial tribunal last week in favour of the first militant, Eam...
This paper examines the effects on UK audit market concentration and pricing of mergers between the large audit firms and the demise of Andersen. Based on data over the period 1985-2002, it appears that mergers contributed to a rise in concentration ratios to levels that suggest concern about the potential for monopoly pricing. The high concentration ratios have not improved the level of price competition in the UK audit market. Our pooled models suggest that concentration ratios are associated with higher audit fees. The evidence suggests that the effects of mergers between big firms on brand name fee premium and on price competition vary depending on the particular circumstances. The brand name premium is strongest for the largest quartile of companies prior to the mergers. After the ...
... levels normally associated with a tight oligopoly. These structural changes appear to have had a var...
BANK customers should be able to transfer their account numbers as easily as their national insurance number, one of the newer entrants to the market told MPs yesterday. Jayne-Anne Gadhia, chief executive of Virgin Money, said it could "revolutionise" how the sector worked for consumers and break what she claimed was an "oligopoly" of the big five banks in current accounts.
Many prior studies have found that large auditors charge significantly higher fees for statutory audit services, potentially resulting from higher audit quality and/or a lack of competition in the audit market. However, recent research using a Heckman two-step procedure attributes the large auditor premium to auditor selection bias. In this paper we examine the limitations of the Heckman model and estimate the large auditor (Big Four) premium using decomposition and matching methods on a large sample of UK private companies. Our analysis suggests that Heckman two-step estimates are highly sensitive to changes in sample and model specification, particularly the presence of a valid identifying variable. In contrast, the propensity score and portfolio matching methods we employ point to a ...
...') and the occupation of a position of oligopoly in many audit markets (Moizer, 1997). Craswell et ...
ARE the Big Four accounting firms operating an oligopoly? Last week's publication of the last set of profit figures for 2005, from KPMG, renders the question unavoidable. A partnership in one of these firms, the happy lot of some 2000 or so well-heeled Britons, has become a licence to print money. The capital investment involved is minimal and the banks will always lend you the cash - should you need it - because there is virtually no risk. Partners' pay has trebled since the early 1990s, when there existed (and doesn't this now appear quaint? ) a so-called Big Eight.
... to competition that the monopoly or oligopoly (for some people, to the exclusion of others) of p...
EVERYTHING YOU LEARNT AT SCHOOL... BUT CAN YOU REMEMBER? We are always being told that school exams are getting easier. A new book draws on homework from the past. So how tough was it? 1. What is a pantoum? a) a Japanese poetic form related to the haiku b) a Mauritian mammal c) a poetic form developed from a Malaysian verse form d) a Persian love poem 2. What is the area of a triangle with a base of 6cm and a height of 3cm? a) 36cm2 b) 18cm2 c) 9cm2 d) 25cm2 3. Who or what is Erta Ale? a) the inventor of the scale used to measure wind force b) a river in the Solomon Islands c) an active volcano in Ethiopia d) a tropical lagoon in Thailand 4. Which king issued the Edict of Nantes in 1598 encouraging tolerance of Protestants in Catholic France? a) Louis XIV b) Henry IV c) Francis I d) Lou...
... relations may always allow that private oligopoly captures the retail end of markets, enabling the g...
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