Markt- und Unternehmensentwicklung Markets and Organisations

Water scarcity is not exclusively a concern of the poor. Developed countries are increasingly facing problems related to higher per capita consumption and pollution so that enhancing the efficiency of the water supply ranks among the main global challenges of the future. The necessary improvements are not only a matter of technical progress but also of institutional design.

Using tools of modern industrial economics, Urs Meister examines the effects of privatisation and competition in the piped water industry. Considering the two main approaches for competition in an industry with natural monopoly character, common carriage (interconnection) and franchise bidding (auctions), he analyses costs, retail prices and investment. Such analysis shows that competition may be a valuable opportunity to improve the efficiency of water supply.

Foreword This book contains three essays which emanated from the desire to understand more thoroughly the strategies employed by producers of experience and credence goods in order to avoid market failure due to asymmetric information. The first essay focuses on the employment relationship between a football club and its player and treats the productivity of the latter as an experience good. The second essay looks at the market for religious services, which can be considered as credence goods per se. The analysis highlights how the church can employ specific institutional devices, like e. g. celibacy, in order to signal certain properties of its religious services to potential customers and, at the same time, gain a superior strategic position in the market for these services. The last essay is entirely devoted to the analysis of competition among suppliers of experience goods. The author employs a rather sophisticated Coumot model with endogenous, vertically differentiated products. Without going into the details here, the book is recommendable because of its creativity and originality. Scholars interested in the application areas covered by the essays as well as researchers studying markets for experience and credence goods will find rich food for thought. Prof Dr. Egon Franck Preface VII Preface Uncertainty about the quality and the attributes of a product influences the behaviour of the transaction partners and may lead to reduced market efficiency.