Research project AG/JJ/151 (Research action AG)
The MMS project (AG/00/151) is financed by the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office . The project started on 15/12/2008 and runs until 01/04/2011. The MMS project is part of the permanente AGORA program of the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office. AGORA’s general objective is to enhance and valorize existing socio-economic databases of Belgian federal government agencies and ministries.
The objective of the MMS project in particular is to open up and to use for policy support and scientific research the databases in the new data warehouse that is currently being set up by the Federale Overheidsdienst (FOD) Economie (i.e the federal ministry of economic affairs).
The ultimate objectives of the MMS-project are, first, to assist the Sector and Market Monitoring section of the FOD Economie to develop a comprehensive instrument to identify sectors and markets that do not function optimally as a result of, for instance, abuse of market power by market participants. Secondly, the MMS project aims at developing a toolbox for in depth analyses of potentially “problematic markets”. The MMS project will build for this on domestic and international studies that have been accomplished in this area. The most important points of reference for this are:
- Empirical indicators for market investigations (Office of Fair Trading, 2004)
- DG ECFIN’s methodology for product market and sector monitoring (European Commission, 2007) , which contains a pilot study for Belgium by the FOD Economie.
In addition to these existing studies, the MMS project will identify extra indicators that can be implemented using the available data sources of the FOD Economie. A ‘decision logic’ will also be developed that should enable the academic researchers and collaborators of the FOD Economie to related the available indicators in a scientifically valid way and to distill from this exercise indications of abuse of market power.
Partners in the MMS-project are the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (financing partner), the FOD Economie (the federal ministry of economic affairs, the commissioning partner, contact person Mrs. Maria-Caterina Bramati) and the academic research team. The latter team is composed of the following persons:
- Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel HUB:
Johan Eyckmans, coordinator), Stijn Kelchtermans, Kristien Coucke, Annabel Sels, Stijn Vanormelingen
- K.U.Leuven: Frank Verboven
- Universiteit Tilburg (Nederland): Catherine Schaumans
- ECORYS (Nederland): Marcel Canoy
- A junior researcher and a senior researcher
Monitoring of Markets and Sectors MMS Project : final report
Brussels : Federal Science Policy, 2011 (SP2403)
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Samenvatting AGORA-MMS project : samenvatting
Brussel : Federaal Wetenschapsbeleid, 2011 (SP2404)
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Résumé AGORA-MMS projet : résumé
Bruxelles : Politique scientifique fédérale, 2011 (SP2405)
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Summary AGORA-MMS project : summary
Brussels : Federal Science Policy, 2011 (SP2406)
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