International Competition, Economics of Federalism, and Competence Allocation Rules

Abstract

The internationalisation of competition generates the need for an international competition policy regime. However, any realistic attempt must be built upon the existing, predominantly national regimes and, thus, will constitute a multilevel system of antitrust institutions and authorities. Within such a multilevel competition policy system, the horizontal and vertical allocation and delimitation of competition policy competences becomes a crucial problem. This paper uses the economics of federalism to create an analytical framework for analysing stylised competence allocation rules in regard to their performance from en economic perspective. Subsequently, a selection of important stylised competence allocation rules for international competition policy is comparatively analysed. The results of this theoretical analysis allow for policy recommendations in regard to the design of a workable international competition policy regime.