The quality of competition law institutions and enforcement (Some comparative empirical evidence from BRICS and other countries)

Abstract

Empirical work on the influence of competition policy relies on the construction of indicators for measuring certain attributes of the relevant laws and institutions that can be hypothesized to influence the “quality” of these laws and institutions and hence their effect on competition and economic performance. This paper contributes to the methodological literature on indicators of the quality of Competition Law Institutions & Enforcement (CLI&E) and to the empirical literature relating to the measurement of these indicators in different countries. It presents the results of a recent empirical study, which objective has been to measure indicators of the quality of CLI&E, using data collected through a Questionnaire based survey of competition authorities in a large number of countries and data available from international organisations for these countries. The measurement of the indicators relies on a new methodology that focuses on the factors influencing the extent to which CLI&E improves competition and so enhances economic performance. The overall conclusion is that the three BRICS countries included in our survey (Brazil, Russia and South Africa) are coming closer to the advanced jurisdictions in terms of the specific features of the countries’ institutional and legislative set-up relating to CLI&E but still lag far behind in terms of the general conditions (economic, political, institutional, and socio-cultural) influencing the intensity of competition in a country.