Since the year 2000, thanks to the continued support of the “Bernard Van Ommeslaghe Chair”, ECARES has been able to promote research and training activities on the topic of market regulation and liberalization. Several prominent academic speakers have come to ECARES as a result. Specifically, we have been able in recent years to organize the following events:

1. Inauguration of the Bernard Van Ommeslaghe Chair (2000)
Speakers: Pierre de Maret (Recteur, ULB), Jean Tirole (Université de Toulouse & MIT), Jean-Pierre Hansen (Tractebel) & Bernard Van Ommeslaghe.

2. Course by Jean-Jacques Laffont (Université de Toulouse) (2001)
Lectures on Incentive Theory and Development.

3. Course by Konrad Stahl (Mannheim University) (2002)
Strategic Decisions in Government and Business.

4. Round table: Competition and Regulation in Network Industries - Past and Future (2002).
Panelists: Mathias Dewatripont (ECARES, ULB), Martin Hellwig (Universität Mannheim), David Newbery (Cambridge University), Xavier Vives (INSEAD, Fontainebleau).

5. Course by Antonio Estache (World Bank) and Claude Crampes (Université de Toulouse) (2003.
Competition vs. Regulation Policies for Privatized Infrastructure Services: Conflicts in Concepts and Practice.

6. Course by Estelle Cantillon (Harvard Business School) (2004)
Introduction to Market Design.

7. Workshop on The Political Economy of Liberalization of Public Services
Speakers: Antonio Estache (World bank), Catherine Waddams (Centre for Competition Policy, University of East Anglia), Mathias Dewatripont (ECARES, ULB), Patrick Legros (ECARES, ULB), Tommaso Valletti (Imperial College & Italian Public Procurement Agency), Paul Seabright (Université de Toulouse).

8. Lecture by Lars-Henrik Röller (Chief Competition Economist, European Commission) (2005)
European Competition Policy in a Transatlantic Perspective.

9. Course by Antonio Estache (World Bank) & Sergio Perelman (Université de Liège) (2006)
Productivity Measurement for the Regulation of Infrastructure Monopolies.

10. Conference on Emerging Issues Associated with Alliances and mergers in Network Industries (2008)
Speakers : Claude Crampes (IDEI, Toulouse), Russell Pittman (Department of Justice, USA), Jordi Gual, (IESE Business School and “la Caixa”), Antonio Estache (ECARES), Rob Francis (Frontier Economics), Derek Holt (Oxera).

12. Emerging Competition Issues in theProcurement of Infrastructure Services (2009). Speakers:  Emmanuelle Auriol ( Toulouse School of Economics), Decio Coviello (EUI),  Mathias Dewatripont (ULB) Atsushi Iimi (World Bank) and Elisabetta Iossa (Brunel University and University of Roma, Tor Vergata), Christian Ruzzier (Harvard Business School), Giancarlo Spagnolo (University of Tor Vergata and SITE-Stockholm School of Economics) and Timo Valila (EIB).

13. Conference Capture, Collusion and Corruption in Regulated Network Industries (2009).  Speakers: Cedric Argenton (Tilbutrg), Frederic Bohm (GTZ),  Eric De Keuleneer (ULB), David Martimort (Toulouse School of Economics), Ariane Lamber-Mogiliansky (Paris School of Economics), Stephane Saussier (Paris I-Sorbonne), Andreas Stephan (East Anglia) Tina Sorede (World Bank and CMI, Norway) ,Mark Thatcher (London School of Economics), Francesc Trillas (Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona),  Liam Wren-Lewis (Oxford).

The Bernard Van Ommeslaghe Chair has also allowed ECARES to more directly support young researchers. In particular, we were able to offer part-time post-doctoral grants to Isabelle Brocas (Ph.D. from Toulouse, now an Assistant Professor at University of Southern California) and Nicolas Sahuguet (Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, now an Assistant Professor at HEC Montreal).   And since January 2008, it has allowed ECARES to welcome Antonio Estache, who organizes the Chair on top of being, since October 2008, Professor at ULB.

Bernard Van Ommeslaghe holds degrees from Université Libre de Bruxelles and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While pursuing a high-level career in the private sector, in particular as President of ‘Groupe Van Dijk’, he has been actively involved in the academic and public sectors. He is Professor Emeritus from Université Libre de Bruxelles and was a Member of the Belgian ‘Commission Bancaire et Financière’, and of the ‘Groupe d’Experts en Matière de Libéralisation du Secteur de l’Electricité’.  His commitment to our University and his interest for the issue of market liberalization and deregulation has led him to offer to sponsor a Chair dedicated to this topic. Thanks to his generous support, ECARES has received resources that it can use to develop research and training activities in this area, in accordance with its double mission of academic research and doctoral training.