​​​​​​​Paul A. Grout is Professor of Political Economy and Head of Economics at the University of Bristol and a Co-Director of the Leverhulme/ESRC Centre for Market and Public Organisation at the University. He is on the Council and a member of the Executive Committee of the Royal Economic Society, was the first Tinbergen Research Fellow at the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (the Netherland government’s research institute) and is a Research Fellow, of ENCORE, University of Amsterdam. He has published extensively on regulation, privatisation, competition policy, law and economics, and financial economics. Recent academic papers include articles on regulation and law and economics in the Journal of Financial Economics, RAND Journal of Economics, Economic Journal, European Economic Review, Journal of Competition Law and Economics, European Competition Law Annual, and the American Bar Association’s handbook on competition law. Professor Grout has considerable experience in advising government departments and companies on regulation, competition law and financial issues. Recent and ongoing regulation/finance/competition consultancies for official bodies include Competition Commission, OFT, Ministry of Justice, European Investment Bank, and Ofgem. He has also consulted widely for UK, European and US regulated companies in the water, electricity, gas, telecommunications and media sectors