Massimo Motta
Massimo Motta is Research Professor at ICREA-Universitat Pompeu Fabra and at the Barcelona School of Economics. He founded the BSE's Competition and Market Regulation Program and is Scientific Director of this Master.
He served as Chief Competition Economist of the European Commission from 1 September 2013 to 31 August 2016.
Prof. Motta's main areas of research are industrial organisation and competition policy. His work, widely cited and influential, has been published in the leading international economic journals. His book on Competition Policy: Theory and Practice (Cambridge University Press, 2004) is the standard international reference on the economics of antitrust, and is used by lecturers, scholars, and practitioners. His book on Exclusionary practices. The Economics of Monopolisation and Abuse of Dominance (Cambridge University Press, 2018) with Chiara Fumagalli and Claudio Calcagno, contains original research, case discussions and policy implications, shedding new light on this controversial area of antitrust.
He has extensive experience in advising competition and regulatory agencies (including the South African Competition Commission, Chile's Fiscalía Nacional Económica, the Portuguese Autoridade da Concorrência, and OFCOM, the UK's Communications regulator), in teaching competition policy (to lawyers, economists, agency officials, and in undergraduate, graduate, and executive courses) and in supervising doctoral dissertations. His former students have obtained important positions in academia, consulting firms, and in competition and regulatory agencies.
Latest research and policy
The use of economics in the enforcement of abuse of dominance provisions (with Chiara Fumagalli), December 2023.
Denial of interoperability and future first-party entry (with Martin Peitz), Working Paper, September 2023 (forthcoming in International Journal of Industiral Organization).
Self-preferencing and foreclosure in digital markets: theories of harm for abuse cases (New version), International Journal of Industrial Organization, 90 (2023) 102974.
Market Effects of Sponsored Search Auctions (with Antonio Penta), BSE Working Paper 1356, June 2022.
The “kill zone”: Copying, acquisition and start-ups’ direction of innovation (with S Shelegia), CEPR Discussion Paper, July 2021
Shelving or developing? Optimal policy for mergers with potential competitors (with C Fumagalli and E Tarantino), NEW VERSION July 2023. An older version was circulated under the title Shelving or developing? The acquisition of potential competitors under financial constraints, CEPR D.P. 15113.
Market Investigations: A New Competition Tool for Europe? (Massimo Motta, Martin Peitz and Heike Schweitzer, editors), Cambridge University Press, 2022.
“The assessment of exclusive contracts: the competition case against Computicket in South Africa” (with Liberty Mncube and Giulio Federico), Review of Industrial Organization, 1-27. November 2021
“Learning from electricity markets: How to design a resilience strategy” (with Natalia Fabra and Martin Peitz), Forthcoming in Energy Policy. (--> A shorter version: Building a strategy for resilience, VoxEU.org, 16 Sept. 2020)
"The effect of horizontal mergers, when firms compete in prices and investments” (with Emanuele Tarantino), International Journal of Industrial Organization, 78, 102774, September 2021.
“Big Tech Mergers” (with Martin Peitz), Information Economics and Policy, 54:100868. March 2021.
Research Publications
Self-preferencing and foreclosure in digital markets: theories of harm for abuse cases (New version), International Journal of Industrial Organization, 90,102974, September 2023 .
“Learning from electricity markets: How to design a resilience strategy” (with Natalia Fabra and Martin Peitz), Energy Policy, 168, 113116, September 2022.
“The effect of horizontal mergers, when firms compete in prices and investments” (with Emanuele Tarantino), International Journal of Industrial Organization, 78, 102774, September 2021.
“Big Tech Mergers” (with Martin Peitz), Information Economics and Policy, 54:100868, March 2021.
"Dynamic vertical foreclosure" (with Chiara Fumagalli), Journal of Law and Economics, 63: 763-812, November 2020
"Tying in evolving industries, when future entry cannot be deterred", by Chiara Fumagalli and Massimo Motta. CEPR Discussion Paper 9676 (September 2019) - International Journal of Industrial Organization (published online, 73: 1-23, Dec. 2020)
"Vertical Exclusion with Downstream Risk Aversion or Limited Liability" by Stephen Hansen and Massimo Motta, Journal of Industrial Economics, 67(3-4): 409-447, 2019. (Lead article)
Exclusionary practices. The Economics of Monopolisation and Abuse of Dominance, (with Chiara Fumagalli and Claudio Calcagno), Cambridge University Press, 2018.
"On the use of price-cost tests in loyalty discounts and exclusive dealing arrangements: Which implications from economic theory should be drawn?" (with Chiara Fumagalli), Antitrust Law Journal, 81(2): 537–85, 2017.
"A Simple Model of Predation" (with Chiara Fumagalli), Journal of Law and Economics, 56(3): 595-631, August 2013.
"The Effect of the EU Antitrust Investigations and Fines on a Firm’s Valuation", (with Luca Aguzzoni and Gregor Langus), Journal of Industrial Economics, 61(2): 290-338, June 2013
"Exclusive dealing:Investment Promotion may Facilitate Inefficient Foreclosure”, (with Chiara Fumagalli and Thomas Roende), Journal of Industrial Economics, 60 (4): 599 - 608; December 2012.
"Exclusionary Pricing When Scale Matters", (with Liliane Karlinger), the Journal of Industrial Economics, 60(1):75-103, March 2012.
Selected Policy Papers
“The assessment of exclusive contracts: the competition case against Computicket in South Africa” (with Liberty Mncube and Giulio Federico), Review of Industrial Organization, 1-27. November 2021
“Removal of potential competitors, a blind spot of merger policy?” (with Martin Peitz), in Symposium on potential competition in merger control, Competition Law & Policy Debate, Vol. 6, Issue 2, pp 19-25, December 2020
Intervention triggers and underlying theories of harm: Expert Report for the Impact Assessment of a New Competition Tool (with M Peitz), European Commission, September 2020
Which role for state aid and merger control during and after the Covid crisis? (with C Fumagalli and M Peitz), June 2020, Journal of European Competition Law & Practice, Volume 11, Issue 5-6, pp 294–301, May-June 2020,
State Aid Policies in Response to the COVID-19 Shock: Observations and Guiding Principles” (with Martin Peitz), Intereconomics, Volume 55, July/August 2020, Number 4.
"Challenges for EU merger control" (with Martin Peitz), Concurrences, 2:44-49, 2019.
"Recent Developments at DG Competition: 2015" (with Adina Claici, Daniel Coublucq, Giulio Federico and Lluis Saurí), Review of Industrial Organization, Dec. 2016, Volume 49, Issue 4, 585–611.
"Recent Developments at DG Competition: 2014" (with Giulio Federico and Penelope Papandropoulos), Review of Industrial Organization, 47:399–423, 2015.
"Recent Developments at DG Competition: 2013–2014" (with Benno Buehler, Gábor Koltay and Xavier Boutin), Review of Industrial Organization, 45:399–415, 2014.
"Guidelines for the Analysis of Coordinated Effects in Mergers", (with Natalia Fabra), Policy Report commissioned by the World Bank for the Latin American Antitrust Authorities.
"Mergers and National Champions”, (with Michele Ruta), pp.91-117, in Oliver Falck, Christian Gollier and Ludger Woessmann (eds.), Industrial Policy for National Champions, MIT Press, 2011.
"On Cartel Deterrence and Fines in the European Union", European Competition Law Review, 29(4): 209-220, 2008
"Excessive Pricing in Competition Law: Never Say Never?”, (with Alexandre de Streel), in The Pros and Cons of High Prices, Stockholm: Konkurrensverket – Swedish Competition Authority, 2007 (Chapter 2, pp. 14-46).
Other policy contributions
Building a strategy for resilience (with N Fabra and M Peitz), VoxEU.org, 16 Sept. 2020.
Una oportunidad para recuperar Europa (with N Fabra and M Peitz), El País, 14 May 2020
Price regulations in times of crisis, in Daily Maverick, 22 April 2020
Europe needs more competition: Open letter by industrial economists on "European champions"
A follow-up on Competition policy and European firms' competitiveness
"The EU recovery fund: An opportunity for change" (with M Peitz), voxEU.org (*)
"EU state aid policies in the time of Covid-19" (with M Peitz), voxeu.org (*) (Italian version: published in lavoce.info)
Group photo at the "surprise workshop" at the EUI, Florence (October 2018)
Presentation of the Spanish Edition of Competition Policy, Mexico City (May 2018).
Alumni Meeting of the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics