For law firms
Expert economic analysis for competition cases in court. Data analysis with the most advanced statistical and econometric tools to build a coherent and powerful narrative; expert testimony at trial under cross-examination.
Why we exist
Markets, technology, and regulation
have become inseparable.
Boards, regulators, and courts face questions where the right answer depends on the economic facts. Lisbon Economics exists to build that evidence and make it speak in plain language at the level of detail that withstands cross-examination.
— 01
Senior on every mandate
Engagements are staffed by university professors and chief economists. The economist signing the report is the one who built it — no subcontracting of analytical work to junior staff.
Meet the network →— 02
Trial-standard evidence
Every claim is built to survive cross-examination. Theory of harm to quantum, the chain from premise to number is defensible at every link — in front of authorities and in court.
How we work →— 03
AI and frontier methods
Modern econometrics, BLP-class demand systems, structural simulation, machine learning, and AI — wielded by a network that includes a top AI expert and publishes in leading international journals.
See the method →How we work
Narrative.
Evidence.
Modelling.
Every Lisbon Economics mandate runs on the same four-step method — a coherent narrative of the economic question, evidence-based analysis, statistical and econometric data work, and structural modelling when the case demands it. The AI and software stack underneath is current, and the senior expert wielding it is on the engagement from day one.
Step 1 · Narrative
01
Define the economic question, the theory of harm or benefit, and the test the evidence has to meet.
Step 2 · Evidence
02
Assemble data, documents, market facts, and benchmarks; triangulate against academic literature.
Step 3 · Econometrics
03
Estimate demand, costs, pass-on, damages — using AI-grade tools and the most sophisticated statistical and economic software.
Step 4 · Modelling
04
Where the case warrants it, build a structural model — merger simulation, BLP demand, dynamic pricing — calibrated to the matter.
What we do
A senior network
built around three
capabilities.
Each practice is led by a full professor or chief economist. Engagements are staffed senior-first: the people doing the analysis are the same people signing the report.
— 01
Industrial Organization & Competition
Theory-of-harm articulation, market definition, merger simulation, abuse-of-dominance and cartel evidence. From phase-1 economic submission to courtroom testimony.
— 02
Strategic Competition Analysis
Industry-economics frameworks for boards facing entry threats, platform shifts, and pricing inflections. The same rigour we bring to authorities, applied to your strategy.
— 03
Market Intelligence
Sector studies, demand and elasticity calibration, conduct screening, and post-merger monitoring — fed by proprietary datasets and current academic methods.
Who we are
Ten senior experts.
One network.
Nine professors of economics and a senior computer scientist leading the AI and software stack, drawn from the leading Portuguese universities. Several have led competition authorities, central banks, or sector regulators.
Abel Mateus
CEO · Professor of Economics (UCP · UCL). Former President of the Portuguese Competition Authority; previous senior roles in international institutions and central banking.
Joana Resende
Professor of Economics, Vice Dean (U. Porto). Industrial organisation, platform competition, and digital markets.
Joaquim Ramalho
Professor of Economics (ISCTE). Applied econometrics, panel-data methods, and microeconometric inference.
Margarida Catalão Lopes
Professor of Economics (UL · IST). Game theory and industrial organisation; entry, contracts, and market structure.
João Correia da Silva
Professor of Economics (U. Porto). Industrial organisation under uncertainty, asymmetric information, and oligopoly.
Ricardo Ribeiro
Professor of Economics (UCP · CPBS / CEGEA). Empirical industrial organisation, demand estimation, and competition policy.
Joana Pinho
Associate Professor (CPBS). Industrial organisation and innovation economics.
José Carlos Santos AI LEAD
Senior computer scientist (PhD). Leads the AI and software stack used across mandates — statistical, econometric, structural-modelling, and machine-learning pipelines.
Duarte Carneiro de Brito
Professor of Economics (NOVA · FCT). Industrial organisation, mergers, and applied microeconomics.
Rosa-Branca Esteves
Professor of Economics (U. Minho). Price discrimination, customer data, and competition in digital markets.
Recognition
A track record
that holds up
in the room.
Lisbon Economics has supported mandates in front of every European competition forum that matters, and at all the principal Portuguese courts and sector regulators. The numbers below capture the network's standing; the substance is in the matters themselves.
Experts
10
professors of economics plus the firm\'s AI lead, with leadership and advisory roles at competition authorities, central banks, and regulators.
Jurisdictions
6
Leading Portuguese universities represented across the network.
Published
400+
Peer-reviewed articles in leading international economic journals by network members.
Mandates
200+
Competition, regulation, and damages mandates supported since 2010.
Who we work with
Five audiences,
one economic discipline.
Each row describes what Lisbon Economics delivers for a specific audience. A single mandate can span several — a merger case, for example, typically engages corporate counsel, outside law firms, and the competition authority on opposite sides of the same factual record.
For corporations
Compliance advice supporting in-house counsel. Merger and acquisition strategy and case preparation, jointly with law firms, for presentation to competition authorities. Similar support on state aid.
For consumer organisations
Economic advice on antitrust cases and quantification of damages to consumers or firms; support to lawyers throughout the court process — from filing to trial.
For competition authorities
Formulating competition cases under national or European law: economic support and analysis to make an evidence-based case; data analysis and case modelling at the level the file requires.
For sector regulators
Expertise formulating rules — and applying them — for a given industry. Ex-ante and ex-post impact studies of regulatory rules and frameworks; market studies that survive contestation.
Capability stack
From theory of harm
to quantum at trial.
Every mandate, regardless of audience, draws on the same three-layer capability stack — articulation, quantitative analysis, and courtroom-grade communication. The same senior experts run all three layers; the work is not handed off between teams.
— Layer 01
Theory & market definition
Theory-of-harm articulation, market definition, identification of the relevant counterfactual and the test the evidence must meet. The foundation that every later number stands on.
Proof of work →— Layer 02
Econometrics, AI & modelling
Demand and cost estimation, BLP-class random-coefficient models, merger simulation, pass-on, damages quantum. Implemented in the most sophisticated statistical and economic software; supervised by a top AI expert.
Proof of work →— Layer 03
Submission & testimony
Economic submissions, expert reports, and oral testimony — written and delivered by the same senior expert who built the analysis. Defensible under cross-examination, in front of authorities, and in court.
Proof of work →Track record
Selected cases.
Anonymised, but representative.
A small sample of mandates from the last five years. Counterparties and jurisdictions are anonymised where confidentiality applies; on the rest we can speak in detail under engagement.
2025
Merger · Phase II
€2.1 bn payments-services merger — unilateral effects defence on behalf of notifying parties.
EU · DG COMP
2024
Damages
Trucks cartel follow-on damages — pass-on and quantum analysis for a fleet operator group.
PT · Court
2024
Abuse of dominance
Telecom incumbent margin-squeeze case — economic evidence on costs, prices, and replicability test.
ES · CNMC
2023
Sector inquiry
Retail-energy market study — demand response, switching, and tariff complexity.
EU · National regulator
2023
Strategic competition
Platform entry economics for incumbent ride-hailing operator — pricing, supply elasticity, and regulatory exposure.
Multi-jurisdiction
2022
Class action
Consumer-finance overcharge class — common-impact and methodology testimony at certification.
Iberia
Insights
What we are writing about.
Selected working papers and notes from the network. Full publication list available in the Publications section.
PT Large Infrastructure Projects: Economic Impacts
A forty-year present-value reckoning of Portugal's largest peacetime infrastructure commitment, finding that the government's current aviation-and-rail plan would cost roughly €84 billion more in lifetime fiscal and welfare terms than the leaner, European-gauge alternative the report recommends.
Read full document →
PT Large Infrastructure Projects: Options for the New Lisbon Airport
With Lisbon's single urban airport nearing its 49-million-passenger ceiling in the early 2030s, this essay weighs a costly new airport at Alcochete against retaining Humberto Delgado plus a complementary Montijo field, finding the dual-airport path cheaper by roughly €14 billion in social cost.
Read full document →
PT Large Infrastructure Projects: High-Speed Network & EU Links
Portugal is building its flagship high-speed network in Iberian rather than European track gauge — a choice this essay argues forfeits €6–12 billion in EU funding and beyond-the-Pyrenees freight access, and that switching the rest of the programme to European standard would repay five- to tenfold.
Read full document →
AI in Medicine
A comparative review of leading U.S. and European academic medical centers, finding that America's lead in turning AI into everyday clinical practice is organizational rather than scientific, and setting out a six-point agenda for European universities to turn their regulatory and data-infrastructure strengths into translational leadership.
Read full document →
Health-Care Cartels in Portugal
This study puts the damage that cartels and competition abuses inflicted on the Portuguese state at €1.5 billion across two decades of prosecuted cases — and, since barely one in ten cartels is ever caught, perhaps an order of magnitude more once hidden collusion is counted.
Read full document →
Platform commissions and seller welfare in the App Store era
Empirical estimates of demand and seller-surplus effects of commission caps; trim-sensitivity and instrument choice in BLP-class estimation.
Read paper →
Considering a matter where economics evidence decides the outcome ?
Send a one-paragraph brief. A senior member of the network will reply within one working day with a read on fit and approach.