We are proud to announce the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority (DCCA) as this year’s partner of our Partner Pre-Case, taking place on Monday March 9th. If your team is one of the three finalists you will be presented with the unique opportunity to visit the headquarters of the authority, where the finals will be hosted on Thursday the 12th of March.
Philip Harry Heymans Pallesen. Head of Section at the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority.
The DCCA works for well-functioning markets, growth and consumer welfare by enforcing the Danish Competition Act and contributing to the development of new and existing regulations. To give you an idea of how it is to be an economist at the DCCA we had a talk with cand.polit Philip Pallesen who mainly works with the enforcement of the Danish Competition Act, also referred to as competition cases, and the development of policies.
“Competition cases are when we look at potential infringements of the Danish Competition Act. An example of an infringement could be when competitors participate in a cartel. That is, where competitors enter into an agreement about e.g. prices, produced output or other parameters of competition, which can restrict competition in the market and ultimately harming all of us the consumers.”
He continues to mention how he approaches these tasks, “Working with competition cases and the development of policies requires a firm grip on microeconomic theory and forces you to apply these theories on real life problems and use economic intuition to find out what kind of data is needed to investigate and further confirm or invalidate the hypothesis set up for the issues concerned.”
Some of the responsibilities of the authority are similar to the ones of the ministries, and we asked how they differ,
“We are the experts when it comes to matters concerning competition and the consumers whereas the ministry to a larger extent have generalists. This means that the ministry relies on our expertise and guidance regarding expected effects on the conditions of competition and consumer welfare e.g. when developing new policies or changing existing regulation.”
USING AN ECONOMICS’ DEGREE IN PRACTICE
CURRICULUM VITAE
2017 – Present
Head of Section, Danish Competition and Consumer Authority
2014 – 2017
Student, Danish Competition and Consumer Authority
2016 – 2017
Internship, Embassy of Denmark in Indonesia
2011 – 2017
MSC, Economics University of Copenhagen
The DCCA works with a wide variety of different economic issues. In our interview with Philip we wanted an insight in what economists at the DCCA work with and how they apply economic theory in their daily work. To this he said:
“Common for all is that economists can contribute with knowledge of microeconomic theories including not only industrial economics but also behavioral economics, economic intuition and experience with applying these theories on data. In competition cases economists contribute by making the foundation of which decisions are based. This could be market investigations to examine how close certain competitors are e.g. by asking the customers in the market about their preferences for the specific product or depending on the specific case estimating if the price set by a dominant firm is excessive or predatory.”
The use of theoretical knowledge is a unique part of working at the competition and consumer authority. Philip mentions being told that only about 10 pct. of what he would learn at the University of Copenhagen would be applied in the job afterwards. He sees DCCA as one of the exceptions from this as they apply microeconomic theories on a daily basis to help solve the competition issues that they face. For Philip this is a big ad- vantage and he thinks Polit Case Competition can work as an eye opener for the students of economics.
“Among economics students, economists, and the public in general, it is often said that economists can work almost everywhere and I think it is true for a large part. I remember that when I studied economics and it actually came to the point where I had to apply for a job, it was not that clear where I could actually work as an economist and how I, as an economist, would be able to contribute.”
However, taking on the Polit Case Competition as pre-case partners DCCA is presented with the opportunity of introducing participants to what problem sets economists at DCCA face, and how these are addressed.
“The issues dealt with at the DCCA are not only extremely interesting from an economist’s perspective but also extremely important to the public.”
THE PARTNER PRE-CASE AS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR STUDENTS
The Partner Pre-Case is a training case, which mirrors the format of the case in the Case Experience Weekend. Participants will acquire experience in applying microeconomic and industrial economic theories on real life issues as well as getting insights in how economics and competition law can interact to solve a case for a better result. It is a great opportunity for students to get hands-on experience with one of the many different competition issues that the DCCA is facing on a daily ba- sis.
“Although the case is a simplified version of the real life problems, the case nonetheless challenges the students to use their economic intuition and apply the microeconomic theories taught at the microeconomic courses at the University”
Regarding the expected gain from the Partner Pre-Case, participants can expect a hot topic within the international world of indus- trial economics and competition law.
“The Partner Pre-Case concerns a hot topic within the world of industrial economics and competition law not only in Denmark but also in an international perspective. “The participants will have to get familiar with a specific market e.g. which firms are active in the market, what are their respective positions, and how do they differ seen from the consumers’ perspective. These are only a few of the things that the participants will have to take into account when assessing the conditions of competition in the market within the short time frame of the case. “