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Competition Policy

Ex Post Economic Evaluation of Competition Policy: The EU Experience

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.

2 MARCH 2022
Modelling the macroeconomic impact of competition policy 2021 update and further development
English
(1.88 MB - PDF)
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22 FEBRUARY 2021
Modelling the macroeconomic impact of competition policy 2020 update and further development
English
(1.54 MB - PDF)
Download

** Antitrust Writing Awards 2021 - Best Soft Law - Economics category **

 

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:

Ex-post economic evaluations
  • objectives and scope of evaluations by the European Commission;
  • description of counterfactual evaluation techniques used;
  • conditions for a successful ex post evaluation of a competition policy intervention;
  • a wide selection of individual cases covering a variety of economic sectors;
  • applications in merger control, antitrust and State aid;
  • direct benefits of competition policy interventions for consumers;
  • deterrent effects of such interventions on market participants; and
  • macroeconomic outcomes in terms of job creation, productivity and GDP growth.

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