PhD position: Competition Law Enforcement in Mixed Markets

Utrecht University School of Law invites applications for a fully funded, salaried, four-year PhD position exploring the extent to which enforcement competition law differs between State-owned enterprises and private undertakings. This interdisciplinary project follows a mixed methods approach, combining doctrinal legal research with data-driven, experimental and qualitative methods.

Your job
State ownership has been rediscovered across the EU for industrial policy purposes, proving effective in the pursuit of strategic autonomy and sustainability transitions. State-owned enterprises (SOEs) are historically prominent in critical markets such as energy, extraction, utilities, finance and transportation, while allowing for more government influence than in private firms.

The above developments have led to a resurgence of state ownership through nationalization, active shareholding and subsidization in the EU, creating new risks for so-called mixed markets, where SOEs and private firms compete. This, in turn, raises questions about competition law enforcement of such markets. SOEs may be inclined to behave anticompetitively and create obstacles for private enterprises. However, there is little understanding of how competition law is enforced against SOEs in practice. This PhD research seeks to establish the first empirical insights into the practice and constraints of competition law enforcement against SOEs.

• As PhD researcher, you will undertake a 4-year research project aimed at answering to what extent, and on what grounds, the enforcement of EU competition law differs between State-owned enterprises and private undertakings.
• This PhD project envisions a mixed methods approach, combining data-driven, experimental and qualitative methodologies.
• The envisioned output of this PhD is 4 academic articles suitable for publication in peer-reviewed academic journals in competition law or policy.
• Throughout this project you will work in close collaboration with two dedicated PhD supervisors, who will coach you towards becoming an independent academic researcher.
• The proposal for this PhD project is attached. There, you find more details about its provisional aims and structure. This proposal should not be considered as entirely prescriptive—you are encouraged to make this project your own in consultation with your supervisors.