Determinants of Antimonopoly Policy Effectiveness in Transition Economies

Abstract

The paper explores what factors influence an effectiveness of antimonopoly policy in transition economies on a local (territorial) level. The empirical evidence on national level suggests that an effective implementation of antimonopoly policy depends mostly on a number of macroeconomic factors. However, an enforcement role of antimonopoly bodies and a specific of regional level are not studied. To investigate the relationship between, firstly, an antimonopoly authority’s activity output and, secondly, local economic factors and the effectiveness of antimonopoly policy a survey of 151 top officials of 89 local antimonopoly offices and an ordinary least-squares linear regression across 89 local regions in Russia and Kazakhstanare used. The results indicate that on local level an openness of local economy matters as on national, however, a size of local economy and an intensity of local competition do not matter. Furthermore, the effectiveness of antimonopoly policy in transitional economies is empirically associated with the active stance against anticompetitive agreements (positively) and an abuse of a dominant position of market power (negatively). Additionally, a size of fines administrated by antimonopoly authorities positively influences the effectiveness of the policy.