A Market Process Analysis of Competition Policy in Latin America

Abstract

This paper examines the institutional context where competition policy in Latin America is enforced. In particular, it places attention on the historical context of economic institutions in the region, and how these institutions have influenced competition policy enforcement. It also delineates three conditions necessary for competition policy enforcement in Latin American countries to achieve both efficiency and innovation development goals. First, the promotion of a pro-market policy agenda; second, the attention to the institutional incentives placed on competition agencies, and finally, the challenge of adverse anti-market social values where the policy is to be implemented. To develop this analysis, the paper develops an alternative analysis different from the mainstream efficiency-equity economic analysis, and focuses on neo-institutional development concepts of economic process.