TRAINING FOR LEADERSHIP

Economic regulation, competition and public sector reform.

Seminars for Spanish academics and professionals. Madrid and the Real Colegio Complutense, Harvard University

Since 2004, the Rafael del Pino Foundation and Barcelona University have been organising activities on topics relating to economic regulation, competition and public sector reform in order to train leaders, academics, business executives and managers from regulators. Barcelona University participates in this initiative through its Department of Economic Policy and Global Economic Structure.

On 16 April 2008 a seminar was organised at the Rafael del Pino Foundation for Spanish academics and professionals on the theme of Public Sector Reform: Privatisation, Regulation and Competition. The seminar was attended by 59 academics and experts in aspects connected with regulation. The five main speakers were:

  • Reinaldo Rodríguez (Chairman, Spanish Telecommunications Market Commission (CMT)), Challenges facing the Telecommunications sector: competition and universal service;
  • José García Montalvo (Professor of Applied Economics, Pompeu Fabra University), The Outlook for the Housing Market;
  • Paulina Beato (Adviser, Office of the Ibero American Secretary General), Reforming the regulation of network services;
  • José Jesús López Tafall (Director of Institutional Relations and Regulation, ONO), Challenges facing the Telecommunications sector: the operators’ view.

A further seminar was organised from 23-27 June 2008 on Public Sector Reform: Governments and Markets at the Real Colegio Complutense, University of Harvard, which was taught by the following academics:

  • Kenneth Button (School of Public Policy, George Mason University), Deregulation and Privatization of the Air Transport Industry;
  • Michael Crew (Rutgers University), The Universal Services Obligations and Postal Reform;
  • Jack Donahue (Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University), The Anatomy of Collaborative Governance;
  • Steve Wildman (Michigan State University), Media Economics;
  • Rick Geddes (Cornell University), Public Private Partnerships in the USA;
  • José A. Gómez Ibáñez (Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University), Alternative Strategies for Regulating Private Infrastructure;
  • Arial Pakes (Harvard University), Techniques in Applied Industrial Organization. Using Econometric Analysis in Regulatory and Antitrust Cases;
  • Mildred Warner (Cornell University), Privatization of Local Services Delivery.

The participating academics who presented their work at the seminar were: David Saal (Aston University), Pablo Arocena (Navarre Public University), Joan-Ramon Borrell and Laura Fernández (Barcelona University), Francisco Cabrillo and Rogelio Biazzi (Madrid Complutense University), Melania Mur (Saragossa University), Fernando Barreira (Spanish National University of Distance Education (UNED)), Laura Cabeza (Leon University), Silvia Gómez (Oviedo University), Ricardo Flores (Rovira i Virgili University), Carlos Gutiérrez (Miguel Hernández University), Nikolaos Georgantzís (Jaume I University), Raquel Insa (Barcelona University) and Tim Coelli (University of Queensland).

The Directors of both courses were Professors Antón Costas and Germà Bel from Barcelona University. The coordinator was Professor Xavier Fageda from Barcelona University.