How competition regulation can be adjusted to account for environmental effects of mergers

我将在硕士学习期间缩小博士研究的主题，但我的总体目标是将环境经济学的观点应用于产业组织和拍卖理论。我想研究如何调整竞争法规来考虑并购的环境影响。例如，即使两家公司合并后，消费者价格可能不会上涨，但可能会发生环境破坏，从长远来看，这会给人民和社会带来损失。2016年，农业食品化工领域发生了三起大规模合并。这种鼓励单一农业的使用，意味着种植单一的高产品种。虽然这可能在短期内实现产量最大化，但与种植几种不同物种的多文化农业相比，它也降低了气候适应能力和粮食安全。随着全球气候危机的持续。我相信，在制定竞争政策时，如果我们要实现环境的可持续发展和长远地最大化消费者福利，这些因素和其他许多环境影响就变得越来越重要。拍卖理论适用于养护方案，作为一种最佳分配提供环境服务的财政援助的机制也令人感兴趣。Defra、美国环境保护署和其他国家和多国机构等组织经常提供资金，以激励可持续农业和制造业实践。然而，由于资金有限，这些资金必须在申请人之间以一种巧妙的方式进行分配，以优化环境和经济结果。例如，农民只有在获得足够的钱购买新的节水灌溉设备时才能充分利用经济援助，这意味着如果分配给他们的资金减少，他们就无法提供所需的改进。这种不连续性和其他复杂性（例如出价上限和对环境改善的可靠衡量）使这些拍卖变得复杂，并可能扭曲激励机制。我对环境计量经济学的研究也很感兴趣。气候变化是一个长期的复杂问题。例如，为了建立足够稳定的关系，以便在政策制定中使用，分析必须包含非平稳性。在这种情况下，我将对探索这种非线性模型、非平稳性和自动模型选择算法特别感兴趣。总的来说，我的研究将有助于实现更可持续的环境和经济成果，例如合并和支持计划，从长远来看，最大限度地提高人们的福利。

I will narrow down the topic of my doctoral research over the course of my master's studies, but my overall ambition is to apply an environmental economics viewpoint to industrial organisation and auction theory.I would like to study how competition regulation can be adjusted to account for environmental effects of mergers. For instance, even if consumer prices may not rise following two companies merging it may happen that the environment is harmed, which causes losses to people and society in the long run. 2016 saw three large scale mergers in the agricultural-food-chemical sector.This incentivised use of monocultural agriculture, meaning that a single high yield species is planted. While this may maximise production in the short run, it also decreases climate resilience and food security compared to polycultural agriculture, where several different species are planted. With the ongoing world-wide climate crisis. I believe these and many other environmental effects are increasingly important to take into account in competition policy if we are to achieve environmental sustainability and maximise consumer welfare in the long run.Auction theory applied to conservation programmes is also of interest as a mechanism to optimally distribute financial assistance for the provision of environmental services.Organisations like Defra, The US Environmental Protection agency and other national and multinomial bodies frequently give out funds to incentivise sustainable agricultural and manufacturing practices. However, as funds are limited these must be divided between applicants in a clever way to optimise the environmental and economic outcomes. For instance, a farmer may only make the most of financial assistant if they can get enough money to buy new water-saving irrigation equipment, which means that if less funds are allocated to them they cannot provide the required improvements. These sort of discontinuities and other complications (e.g. bid caps and credible measurement of environmental improvement) make these auctions complicated and can distort incentives.I am also interested in conducting research in environmental econometrics. Climate change is a complex problem stretching over long timeframes. Analysis must, for instance, incorporate nonstationary in order to establish relationships stable enough to be of use in policy making. I would be especially interested in exploring such nonlinear models, non-stationarities and automatic model selection algorithms in this context.Overall, my research will contribute to more sustainable environmental and economic outcomes in for instance mergers and support programmes, maximising welfare of people in the long run.