On the afternoon of 23 June 2022, the Chief Economist and the Principal Adviser for economic ex-post evaluation of DG Competition hosted a virtual workshop titled Estimating the costs of non-competition for the EU economy.
Programme
13:30 – 13:40 – Welcome and introduction
- Pierre Régibeau (Chief Economist - DG Comp)
- presentation by Thomas Deisenhofer (Principal Adviser for ex-post economic evaluation – DG Comp)
13:40 – 14:15 – Session 1 - introductory keynote: Estimating the ‘costs of non-competition’ – What is the State of the Art?
The ‘costs of non-competition’ for society may be created via a variety of channels. Malfunctioning competition has an impact on allocative efficiency, productive efficiency, dynamic efficiency and it may affect the functioning of input markets, including - notably - the labour market.
The session aims to provide an overview of the different channels through which malfunctioning competition may have wider macroeconomic effects, discuss the interactions between those channels and consider how the effects stemming from different channels can best be aggregated. On that basis, it will seek to sketch out a research agenda in this field, specifically in relation to the EU.
Speaker:
- Chiara Criscuolo (OECD) - Estimating the costs of non-competition: what is the state of art?
Chair: Pierre Régibeau (Chief Economist - DG Comp)
Moderators: Moritz Suppliet / Guillaume Débarbat (CET – DG Comp)
14:15 – 15:30 - Session 2: Insights derived from history, country studies and natural experiments
Changes in the competition regime and its enforcement - over time and across countries - can provide valuable insights on the long term macro-economic effects of competition. This session aims to discuss relevant research in this field.
Speakers:
- Jason E. Taylor (Central Michigan University) - A Cartel Policy Experiment During the Great Depression: The National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 (see also the presentation)
- Otto Toivanen (Aalto University) - What can we learn from legal cartels for competition policy? (see also the presentation)
Chair: Vincent Verouden (PA team – DG Comp)
Moderators: Moritz Suppliet / Guillaume Débarbat (CET – DG Comp)
15:45 – 17:00 - Session 3: The impact of product market competition on labour
The interaction between product market competition and input markets, and labour markets in particular, has received increasing attention in recent years. Increased market power in product markets may result in reduced input demand as well as monopsony power effects. This session is to provide a contemporary view on the main empirical learnings obtained thus far, and to define an upcoming research agenda.
Speakers:
- Elena Prager (Northwestern University) - Employer Market Power: An Overview of Emerging Evidence (see also the presentation)
- Jan Eeckhout (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) - What Drives Wage Stagnation: Monopsony or Monopoly? with Shubhdeep Deb, Aseem Patel and Lawrence Warren (see also the presentation)
Chair: Guillaume Débarbat (CET – DG Comp)
Moderators: Moritz Suppliet / Guillaume Débarbat (CET – DG Comp)
17:00 – 18:15 - Session 4: Recent Experiences with Modelling the Macro-economic Impact of Competition
This session will showcase recent research work aimed at estimating the macro-economic impact of malfunctioning competition. It will discuss the channels through which the increase or decrease in competition is modelled and the shocks and scenarios considered in the modelling exercises to estimate the macroeconomic impact of competition. It will present the benchmarks used to measure a given state of competition in an economy/group of economies (1) against a counterfactual without functioning competition and/or (2) against a counterfactual where competition is effective or at least ‘workable’.
It will also seek to discuss the orders of magnitude of the different modelled effects of malfunctioning competition on GDP and compare them to empirical/historical observations in the literature.
Speakers:
- Federico Diez (IMF) - Rising corporate market power: facts, macroeconomic effects, and policy implications.
- Jan De Loecker (KU Leuven) – Market Power: Measurement and Sources (Slides of Pr. De Loecker can be made available to NCAs / DG COMP colleagues upon request – please contact COMP-SOC
ec [dot] europa [dot] eu (COMP-SOC[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu))
Chair: Hans Zenger (CET – DG Comp)
Moderators: Guillaume Débarbat / Moritz Suppliet (CET – DG Comp)
18:15 – 18:30 - Closing remarks
- Thomas Deisenhofer (Principal Adviser for ex-post economic evaluation – DG Comp
More information and contact : COMP-SOCec [dot] europa [dot] eu (COMP-SOC[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)