Ex Post Economic Evaluation of Competition Policy
Report on the evolution of competition in the EU during the past 25 years
DG Competition has published on 24 June 2024 a new report on the evolution of competition in the EU during the past 25 years.
The report entitled ‘Protecting competition in a changing world’ presents and assesses new research on how the conditions of competition in the EU have evolved over time as well as the main drivers of those changes. It also presents new research on the impact of competition on competitiveness and overall economic growth.
The report draws extensively on contributions from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a consortium of academics and consultants led by Lear and DG Competition itself.
Related material available for download:
- The contributions from the OECD, for which the OECD is sole copyright owner:
- The contribution from the consortium of academics and consultants led by Lear:
- The fact sheet accompanying the report.
On 27 June 2024, DG Competition organised a conference that brought together experts and stakeholders to present and discuss the main findings of the report. A video recording of the conference and further materials are available on the conference webpage.
Reports on the Macroeconomic Impact of Competition Policy
In collaboration with the Joint Research Centre and the Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs, the Directorate General for Competition conducts simulations of the macroeconomic impact of the competition policy interventions by the European Commission. The results of these macro-model simulations are presented in the annual reports below.
Annual report 2022 Annual report 2021 Annual report 2020
Ex Post Economic Evaluation of Competition Policy. The EU experience
Competition authorities are increasingly interested in understanding the impact of their activities on markets and consumers. The goal is to improve competition policy rules and decision-making practices and to get robust evidence on the benefits of competition and competition policy for society as a whole. Discussions with competition authorities, practitioners and academics have shown the need to take stock of the experience gained in this field by the European Commission and to present it in an easily accessible way.
The studies collected in this edited volume range from the ex post evaluation of specific policy interventions to the assessment of the broader impact of competition policy. The issues and topics examined include the following:
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This book assembles within a single volume all that is needed for competition policy analysts and practitioners to undertake ex post economic evaluations. It includes four main parts covering the ex post evaluation of individual merger interventions, antitrust decisions and State aid cases as well as the broader, macroeconomic impact of EU competition policy. The different studies have been authored by Commission officials and competition policy experts under contract with the Commission. Some of the chapters update and summarise in an easily readable way studies that had been published earlier on this website (see below). Together, these summary chapters and the new material presented in the edited volume offer a fair reflection of the ex post evaluation work done in DG Competition.
A recent VoxEU column summarises the main lessons learnt from this work and sets out areas for further research.
Webinars on the "Ex post economic evaluation of European competition policy”
On 23 June 2020, DG Competition organised a first webinar to commemorate on the publication of the edited volume.
Please see the slides of the different presentations and a recording of the webinar.
On 17 September 2020, DG Competition organised a second webinar which took the form of a roundtable discussion. At this webinar Luca Aguzzoni, Tomaso Duso, Fabienne Ilzkovitz, Antonio Capobianco and Jan Bouckaert considered how to use ex post evaluations to help improve competition policy design and enforcement. Please see the summary of the main points discussed.
List of studies published earlier on the DG Competition website
Chapter 2: A review of merger decisions in the EU
What can we learn from ex-post evaluations?
Chapter 4: The T-Moblie/Orange UK merger case
Economic impact of competition policy enforcement on the functioning of telecoms markets in the EU
Chapter 5: The Telekomunikacja Polska antitrust case
Economic impact of competition policy enforcement on the functioning of telecoms markets in the EU
Chapter 6: Alleged abuse by E.ON of its dominant position in the German wholesale electricity market
The economic impact of enforcement of competition policies on the functioning of EU energy markets
Chapter 8: Ex post assessment of the impact of State aid on competition: The case of Newquay airport in the UK
Ex post assessment of the impact of State aid on competition
Chapter 9: The impact of State aid schemes to bring basic broadband to rural areas in Germany
Economic impact of competition policy enforcement on the functioning of telecoms markets in the EU
Chapter 10: The impact of State aid on the survival and financial viability of aided firms
Ex-post evaluation of the impact of restructuring aid decisions on the viability of aided (non financial) firms