July 1st 2013

Massimo Motta, ICREA Research Professor at the Department of Economics and Business of the UPF, has been named to be the next Chief Competition Economist of the European Commission. He will take up his post on September.

The post of chief competition economist was created in 2003 in an effort to strengthen the economic arguments underlying Commission decisions. The Chief Economist is part of the Commission's Competition Directorate General, and he or she is supposed to be a voice outside the team of case-handlers, giving independent criticism, and assists in evaluating the economic impact of its actions. The role of the Chief Competition Economist includes, among other, the following functions: he provides independent guidance on methodological issues of Economics and Econometrics, and he acts as a focus for economic debate, in liaison with other Commission services and in association with the academic world.

Massimo Motta obtained his Ph.D. in Economics from the London School of Economics (United Kingdom) and the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium) in 1991. In 1992 he started his career as a Professor in the Department of Economics and Business at UPF, and was the first director of the Master in Economics (1993 - 1998).

His main areas of research are industrial organization and competition policy, and he has also worked on international trade and multinational organizations. His book "Competition Policy: Theory and Practice" (Cambridge University Press, 2004) is considered an international reference handbook on the economics of competition.

- European Voice