Economic Projects

The question of how to regulate liberal professions in a reasonable way must also be analysed from an economic perspective. So far, only a few academic articles dealing in detail with the regulation of liberal professions have been published. The main project aims to remedy this situation.

From an economic point of view, the topics most relevant are those addressed by the European Commission: fixed prices, price guidelines, advertising rules, entry requirements and exclusive rights and rules governing business structure and multidisciplinary practices. Central competition-theory and competition-policy questions are relevant as well.

Of particular importance for the analysis are the services provided by freelancers because those services share the same characteristics as credence goods. In case of a credence good, just the provider knows truly everything there is to know about its quality. The consumer who wants to obtain this information needs to overcome many obstacles.  As a consequence, there are many problems in the area of institutional economics that need to be considered carefully and be kept in mind when drafting recommendations. 

The project aims to analsye theoretically, and, if possible, empirically and experimentally single aspects of the topics mentioned above.