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Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Kerber
Wolfgang Kerber is Professor of Economics at University of Marburg (Germany) since 1997. He was Visiting Scholar at University College London, Queen Mary University of London, University of California (Irvine), Fernand Braudel Fellow at the European University Institute (Florence), and Hauser Global Fellow at NYU Law School (New York).
He has done research in competition policy, evolutionary and innovation economics, law and economics, European integration, and, in recent years, on regulatory challenges and policy issues in the digital economy.
T: +49 6421 28-23921, E: kerber@wiwi.uni-marburg.de
CURRENT RESEARCH: REGULATORY CHALLENGES OF THE DIGITAL ECONOMY
The digital revolution has led to huge new challenges for policy-makers with respect to adapt (and develop new) rules and regulatory regimes for markets to the new economic and technological conditions of the digital economy. This research contributes to the analysis of these problems and the current policy discussions, especially with regard to competition policy, consumer policy, data protection law (privacy), interoperability , and data governance and policy (e.g., data access, data sharing / portability, data trustees, data in connected cars). This also includes the analysis of legislative projects, as, e.g., the last amendment of German competition law, and the current EU projects "Digital Markets Act", "Data Governance Act", and "Data Act".
Publications and Working Papers
Competition, Innovation, and Competition Law: Dissecting the Interplay in: Gerard, Damien (ed.), Dynamic Markets and Dynamic Enforcement - The impact of the digitalrevolution and globalisation on the enforcement of competition law in Europe, Bruylant 2018, pp. 33-62.
Property Rights Theory, Bundles of Rights on IoT Data, and the Data Act, Andrássy Working Paper Series in Economics and Business Administration No. 51, 2023, available at: https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4376833 [coauthor: Martina Eckardt]
Ex-Post Analysis of Pharmaceutical Merger Cases in the EU and US: The Identification of the Relevant R&D Projects, [coauthor: Ute Laermann-Nguyen].
Data Act and Competition: An Ambivalent Relationship, Concurrences N° 1-2023, Art. N° 111075, pp. 30-36.
Governance of IoT Data: Why the EU Data Act will not fulfill its objectives. GRUR International. Journal of European and International IP Law, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1093/grurint/ikac107).
Konsumentensouveränität und Datensouveränität aus ökonomischer Sicht, [Consumer sover-eignty and data sovereignty from an economic perspective], in: Augsberg, Steffen and Petra Gehring (eds.), Datensouveränität. Positionen zur Debatte, Campus: Frankfurt/New York, 2022, 45 – 74 [coauthor: Karsten K. Zolna].
Taming Tech Giants: The Neglected Interplay Between Competition Law and Data Protection (Privacy) Law The Antitrust Bulletin 67(2), 2022, pp. 280-301.
Designing Data Trustees – A Purpose-based Approach. Datentreuhänder – Ein problemlösungsorien-
tierter Ansatz Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Berlin 2022 (100 pp.) [coauthor: Louisa Specht-Riemenschneider].
Revision of the Vehicle Type-Approval Regulation: Analysis and Recommendations (July 27, 2022) [coauthor: Daniel Gill]. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4174028
The German Facebook Case: The Law and Economics of the Relationship between Competition and Data Protection Law, European Journal of Law and Economics 54, 2022, 217-250, [coauthor: Karsten K. Zolna] https://doi.org/10.1007/s10657-022-09727-8
Specifying and Assigning "Bundles of Rights" on Data: An Economic Perspective, forthcoming in: Hofmann, F. / Raue, B./Zech, H. (eds.), Eigentum in der digitalen Gesellschaft Mohr Siebeck: Tübingen 2022, pp. 151-176.
Digital Revolution, Institutional Coevolution, and Legal Innovations, forthcoming 2023 in: European Business Law Review, available at: https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3991012.
Synergies Between Data Protection Law and Competition Law Studie für Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband (vzbv), 2021 [coauthor: Louisa Specht-Riemenschneider].
Datenrechtliche Aspekte des "Digital Markets Act" Zeitschrift für Datenschutz 11(10), 2021, pp. 544 - 548.
Competition Law in Context: The Example of its Interplay with Data Protection Law from an Economic
Perspective in: Wirtschaft und Wettbewerb 7/8, 2021, pp. 400-404.
Taming Tech Giants with a Per Se Rules Approach? The Digital Markets Act from the "rules vs. standard" perspective in: Concurrences No.3, 2021, pp. 28-35.
From (Horizontal and Sectoral) Data Access Solutions Towards Data Governance Systems in: Drexl, J. (ed.), Data Access, Consumer Interests and Public Welfare, Nomos, 2021, pp. 441-476.
Data Portability Rights: Limits, Opportunities, and the Need for Going Beyond the Portability of Personal Data Competition Policy International Antitrust Chronicle, November 2020 Vol. 2(2), pp. 54-59 [coauthor: Daniel Gill].
Datenzugangsansprüche im Referentenentwurf zur 10. GWB-Novelle aus ökonomischer Perspektive Wirtschaft und Wettbewerb Nr.05, 2020, pp. 249-256.
Data-sharing in IoT Ecosystems and Competition Law: The Example of Connected Cars Journal of
Competition Law & Economics 15(4), 2019, pp. 381-426.
Updating Competition Policy for the Digital Economy? An Analysis of Recent Reports in Germany UK, EU, and Australia, 2019.
Modernisierung der Missbrauchsaufsicht für marktmächtige Unternehmen. Report for the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy, Baden-Baden: Nomos 2018 (227 pp.) [coauthors: Heike Schweitzer, Justus Haucap, Robert Welker].
Access to Data in Connected Cars and the Recent Reform of the Motor Vehicle Type Approval Regulation in: JIPITEC (Journal of Intellectual Property, Information Technology and Electronic Commerce Law) 10(2), 2019, pp. 244-256 [coauthor: Daniel Gill].
Data Governance in Connected Cars: The Problem of Access to In-Vehicle Data in: JIPITEC (Journal of Intellectual Property, Information Technology and Electronic Commerce Law) 9(3), 2018, pp. 310-331.
Datenrechte - Eine rechts- und sozialwissenschaftliche Analyse im Vergleich Deutschland - USA 2018, (225 pp.) [coauthor: Louisa Specht].
Interoperability in the Digital Economy, in: Journal of Intellectual Property, Information Technology and
Electronic Commerce Law (JIPITEC) 8(1), 2017, pp. 39 - 58 [coauthor: Heike Schweitzer].
Rights on Data: The EU Communication "Building a European Data Economy" from an Economic Per-
spective in: Sebastian Lohsse, Reiner Schulze, Dirk Staudenmayer (eds.), Trading Data in the Digital Economy: Legal Concepts and Tools, Baden-Baden: Nomos 2017, pp. 109-133.
A New (Intellectual) Property Right for Non-Personal Data? An Economic Analysis in: Gewerblicher
Rechtsschutz und Urheberrecht. Internationaler Teil (GRUR Int), 2016, pp. 989-999.
Digital Markets, Data, and Privacy: Competition Law, Consumer Law and Data Protection, in: Gewerblicher Rechtsschutz und Urheberrecht Internationaler Teil (GRUR Int), 2016, pp. 639-647; republished in: Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice 2016 11(11), pp. 856 – 866.
Exhaustion of Digital Goods: An Economic Perspective in: Zeitschrift für Geistiges Eigentum / Intellectual Property Journal 8, 2016, pp. 149-169.
Other Research
Optimal Incentives for Patent Challenges in the Pharmaceutical Industry Review of Industrial Organization 59, 2021, 503-528. [coauthors: Enrico Böhme, Severin Frank].
Die ökonomischen Grundlagen des Wettbewerbsrechts in: Bien, F./Limperg, B./Montag, F./Säcker, F.-J. (eds.), Münchener Kommentar Europäisches und Deutsches Wettbewerbsrecht, Bd. 1: Europäisches Wettbewerbsrecht, Munich: C.H. Beck, 3. ed., 2020, pp. 21-263 [coauthor: Ulrich Schwalbe].
Dow/DuPont: Another Step Towards a Proper Assessment Concept of Innovation Effects of Mergers 2019 [coauthor: Simonetta Vezzoso].
Ökonomik privatrechtlicher Regelsetzung, in: Möslein, Florian (ed.), Regelsetzung im Privatrecht, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2019, pp. 59-93.