Professor Paul Dobson
BA, (CNAA); MSc, PhD, London Professor of Competition EconomicsMarketing and Retailing Research GroupPublicationsP.W.Dobson@lboro.ac.uk |
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Paul Dobson is Professor of Competition Economics in the Business School at Loughborough University, where he has resided as a full professor in the Marketing & Retailing Group since 1998. He is recognised as a leading international authority on pricing strategy, retail competition and supply-chain relations. He has written extensively on these matters, advised numerous national and international organisations and provided regular commentary for a wide range of media (including TV, radio and news/trade press).
He holds three degrees, including an MSc and PhD in Economics from the University of London, and has held academic posts previously at the University of Nottingham (1990-98) and the University of St Andrews (1988-89). His publications include books on strategic management (e.g., The Strategic Management Blueprint and Strategic Management: Issues and Cases) and competition analysis (e.g., Buyer Power and Competition in European Food Retailing), as well as papers in leading academic journals on matters such as countervailing power (e.g., Economic Journal), competitive strategy (e.g., Journal of Economics and Management Strategy), vertical agreements (e.g., International Journal of Industrial Organization), bargaining theory (e.g., European Economic Review), industry policy (e.g., Economic Policy) and competition law and antitrust matters (e.g., Antitrust Law Journal and Antitrust Bulletin). His current research interests focus on business strategy and public policy, including two ESRC-funded projects examining the impact of retail pricing on overeating and food waste and the dynamics of price competition in UK food retailing.
As an academic with more than twenty years’ experience, Paul has taught and supervised widely on undergraduate, taught masters and doctoral programmes, as well as on in-house senior management and post-experience courses. He supervises doctoral (PhD) students in the areas of business policy, retail strategy and competition theory and economic analysis.
His administration and management experience includes five years’ serving on the Management Group of Loughborough University Business School and as the School’s Director of Postgraduate Programmes, leading a major expansion of postgraduate provision. He is currently Director of the School’s PhD Training Programme.
Professor Dobson’s extensive advisory experience includes advising a wide range of competition and regulatory authorities and international organisations (including European Commission, OECD, UNCTAD, Office of Fair Trading, Financial Services Authority, and the Swiss, Hungarian and Serbian competition authorities). He has also advised numerous industry associations and major corporations on business and public policy and has acted as an expert witness in competition law cases. His work spans a wide range of industries, including retailing, wholesaling, fast-moving consumer goods, telecommunications, financial services, brewing, property selling, printed media and books, with advice covering mergers, strategic alliances, market investigations, vertical relations and cooperative agreements.
Paul presently serves on the advisory board of the American Antitrust Institute where in 2004 he became its first non-American board member, and also on the editorial board of the Service Industries Journal. In recognition of his expertise in his field, Global Competition Review nominated Paul as “one of the world’s pre-eminent competition economists,” and he is one of only six UK academic economists to be listed in The International Who’s Who of Competition Lawyers and Economists.
