Public Enterprises and the Scope of State Functions

This research project includes mainly three goals: the first goal is to assess the economic constitutions of the United States, Germany and Switzerland with particular regard to public enterprises and state functions. By doing this, guidelines for the expansion or reduction of state activities can be extracted.

Second, a description is made for each country which functions the state currently is performing, in particular which goods and services the state currently is producing himself (public enterprises). The gathered results will be compared with the economic theory of the public sector. By doing this, "core activities" of the state can be identified and conclusions can be drawn how the public sector should be organized legally. Particularly interesting is if there exists a "transatlantic common sense" in the scope of state functions.

As a third goal, an analysis of the regulatory framework of sectors in which state intervention takes place will be carried out, including the organization of public enterprises.
By comparing the regulatory framework of different countries and the behavioural results of that framework, ways can be found out how strategic or anticompetitive behaviour of public enterprises may be reduced ("theory of public enterprises").

It is intended that the findings of the conducted research goals shall be published continuously in foreign law journals.

Aufenthaltsort: Columbia University, New York
Referent: Prof. Dr. Klaus A. Vallender (RWA-HSG)