Global Competition Policy Research Articles

Sprovođenje antimonopolske politike u digitalnoj ekonomiji - od globalnih trendova do kažnjavanja google-a

The rapid expansion in the digital economy is reshaping markets around the world and attracting more regulatory attention to ensure fair competition and prevent monopolistic practices. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of antitrust actions in the digital market, focusing on global trends and specific high-profile cases. The purpose is to examine the distribution of antitrust activity by country income level, geographic region, type of infringement (mergers, abuse of dominance, restrictive agreements), and affected companies to understand broader patterns in global competition policy. Utilizing descriptive analysis and case study methods, this paper explores the significance of these trends and delves into two major actions involving Google - Google Shopping and Google Android - as this company has both the highest number of antitrust investigations and the two largest fines imposed by the European Commission. The results emphasize the critical need for adaptable and enforceable competition policies in digital markets, where dominance by a few large players often challenges market fairness. These insights may inform policy-makers and regulators in developing balanced approaches to competition policy, especially in regulating global tech giants like Google to foster a competitive and innovative digital ecosystem.

Sustaining Capitalism and Democracy: Lessons from Global Competition Policy

AbstractCompetition policy has been a central forum for contesting the uneasy relationship between capitalism and democracy since the late nineteenth century. From the earliest policy debates, concerns that robust competition policies aimed at limiting economic concentration would disadvantage domestic producers featured prominently. This dynamic creates an international cooperation problem over competition policy that has intensified with the dramatic increases in globalization over the last several decades. Understanding the causes and consequences of this cooperation problem is central to understanding global governance of the world economy, including the ability of democratic states to manage global capitalism in a manner that sustains democracy. This essay frames the challenge that global competition policy has posed over the last hundred years and argues that democratic major powers have played a critical role in shaping the limited cooperation that has been achieved. A research agenda that develops integrated theories of domestic and international competition policymaking as well as a multi-method empirical agenda for describing and explaining policy outcomes and their consequences for economic inequality, growth, and democracy is an essential task for international relations scholars.

The Politics and Practice of New Zealand Competition Law

There is a wind of change blowing through global competition law and policy. Four or five years ago, there were signs a front was coming. Progressive commentators were fretting about years of seemingly unchecked market concentration. They were asking whether greater antitrust intervention might soothe rising inequality, prop up wages, and even disband aggregated political power. Some from the vanguard of this movement now occupy the most influential positions in the global antitrust endeavor. In this article, I locate New Zealand’s experience within the international normative debate over the law’s objectives by reference to the country’s modern economic history. And I explain how policy translates into practice at the enforcement coal face in New Zealand. In doing so, I observe that the country’s competition agency, the Commerce Commission, is failing in its duty to investigate and prosecute exclusionary conduct in the jurisdiction.

Global Competition Policy Impractical?

This paper examines the issues surrounding crafting of global competition policy and the institutions (WTO, UNCTAD , OECD & ICN) which have mandate of coming up with a global competition policy. Several factors have to be considered before coming up with a global competition policy and thus the paper concludes that it is difficult to come up with a global competition policy.

To What Extent, If at All, Is It Desirable or Realistic to Aim for a Global Agreement on Competition Policy?

The pursuit of a globally recognised competition policy appears to be endless at this point in time. Lack of cohesion among global institutions and an inability to forego certain differences to achieve a suitable global policy are just some of the reasons examined in this brief essay on why such a global competition is an unrealistic expectation currently. This essay examines 3 institutions that formulate global competition policy, the World Trade Organisation, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the International Competition Network. While these powerful policymakers have made efforts to try and achieve as coherent a policy as possible, their inevitable shortcomings and disadvantages as forums for discussing and implementing internationally recognised competition policy is well examined. The relative infancy of competition law in many developing countries has also led to a situation where these developing countries implement a competition policy based on the needs and specific interests of developed countries. This practice is clearly counter-intuitive but is a practice that is widespread and almost impossible to reverse. This essay also analyses the costs of implementing a global agreement on competition policy, the obstacles such an agreement would actually create and the general difficulty states have encountered when trying to reach such an agreement.

The Global Food Value Chain and Competition Law and Policy in BRICS Countries: Insights from Selected Value Chains in South Africa

This working paper forms part of South Africa’s contributions to the BRICS Joint Working Group on Food and Agro-processing’s overarching report on ‘The Global Food Value Chain and Competition Law and Policy in BRICS countries’. Constituted by the competition authorities of the BRICS countries, in collaboration with universities and research centres, the Working Group’s overarching report aims to first provide an overview of key developments in various segments of global food value chains in the BRICS countries and to then focus in more detail on the impact of the recent consolidation in plant protection and seeds segments of value chains. This working paper contributes to the overarching report by providing an overview of developments and competition concerns in the following food and food-related segments in South Africa: 1) Seeds; 2) Fertilizers; 3) Animal feed and poultry; 4) Maize and wheat milling; 5) Dairy; and 6) Retail. These value chains were selected because of their importance as critical inputs into food production and given their significance as part of a typical food basket for consumers in southern Africa. These food products are increasingly retailed through supermarkets in the region. The selected value chains are also important because they have the potential to promote value addition and industrialisation in the region. We employ a framework that allows for the evaluation of competition and regulatory dynamics in agro-processing value chains using a regional value chain (RVC) approach, alongside the global value chain (GVC) approach which has been employed for a range of products including agricultural commodities and cash crops.

The Global Food Value Chain and Competition Law and Policy in BRICS Countries: Insights from Selected Value Chains in South Africa

This working paper forms part of South Africa’s contributions to the BRICS Joint Working Group on Food and Agro-processing’s overarching report on ‘The Global Food Value Chain and Competition Law and Policy in BRICS countries’. Constituted by the competition authorities of the BRICS countries, in collaboration with universities and research centres, the Working Group’s overarching report aims to first provide an overview of key developments in various segments of global food value chains in the BRICS countries and to then focus in more detail on the impact of the recent consolidation in plant protection and seeds segments of value chains. This working paper contributes to the overarching report by providing an overview of developments and competition concerns in the following food and food-related segments in South Africa: 1) Seeds; 2) Fertilizers; 3) Animal feed and poultry; 4) Maize and wheat milling; 5) Dairy; and 6) Retail. These value chains were selected because of their importance as critical inputs into food production and given their significance as part of a typical food basket for consumers in southern Africa. These food products are increasingly retailed through supermarkets in the region. The selected value chains are also important because they have the potential to promote value addition and industrialisation in the region. We employ a framework that allows for the evaluation of competition and regulatory dynamics in agro-processing value chains using a regional value chain (RVC) approach, alongside the global value chain (GVC) approach which has been employed for a range of products including agricultural commodities and cash crops.

Competition policy in the global era

ABSTRACTI discuss some of the implications of globalization to the design and application of competition policy. My analysis is divided into three different areas: price fixing, mergers and abuse of dominant position. I also consider the importance of China as an emergent player in the global competition policy arena.

Economy and planet: a blind spot for community psychology?

Conventional economics shares a number of characteristics with mainstream psychology: individualism, acontextualism, and both social and ecological irrelevance. Community psychology has been one response to the shortcomings of mainstream psychology, but has not typically engaged with criticisms of the conventional economics with which it shares assumptions, nor with the economic dimension of community. I reflect on experience promoting alternatives to the dominant economic growth / global competitiveness policy paradigm in the region of Manchester, England, and on the community psychological nature of this project. Community psychology can help articulate an alternative set of values and provide conceptual and practical tools for counter-hegemonic social movements, but the path from community psychology praxis to social movement praxis is not obvious

Book Reviews

Daniel Rubinfeld of University of California, Berkeley reviews “The Microsoft Antitrust Cases: Competition Policy for the Twenty-First Century”, by Andrew I. Gavil and Harry First. The Econlit abstract of this book begins: “Provides an account of Microsoft's encounter with the global competition policy system and explores its lessons and durable meaning. Discusses the Microsoft antitrust cases; Microsoft's early encounters with the U.S. antitrust system─the Federal Trade Commission investigation and the antitrust division's licensing case; bringing the Windows 95/98 monopolization case; concluding the Windows 95/98 case─appeal and settlement; private litigation in the United States; antitrust as a global enterprise; the challenge of remedy; in praise of institutional diversity; and lessons from the Microsoft cases.” Gavil is Director of the Office of Policy Planning at the Federal Trade Commission. First is Charles L. Denison Professor of Law and Director of the Competition, Innovation, and Information Law Program at the New York University School of Law.

Will they stay or will they go? International graduate students and their decisions to stay or leave the U.S. upon graduation.

The U.S. currently enjoys a position among the world’s foremost innovative and scientifically advanced economies but the emergence of new economic powerhouses like China and India threatens to disrupt the global distribution of innovation and economic competitiveness. Among U.S. policy makers, the promotion of advanced education, particularly in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields, has become a key strategy for ensuring the U.S.’s position as an innovative economic leader. Since approximately one third of science and engineering post-graduate students in the U.S. are foreign born, the future of the U.S. STEM educational system is intimately tied to issues of global competitiveness and American immigration policy. This study utilizes a combination of national education data, a survey of foreign-born STEM graduate students, and in-depth interviews of a sub-set of those students to explain how a combination of scientists’ and engineers’ educational decisions, as well as their experience in school, can predict a students’ career path and geographical location, which can affect the long-term innovation environment in their home and destination country. This study highlights the fact that the increasing global competitiveness in STEM education and the complex, restrictive nature of U.S. immigration policies are contributing to an environment where the American STEM system may no longer be able to comfortably remain the premier destination for the world’s top international students.

Privatizing the Economic Constitution- Can the World Market Reproduce its Own Institutional Prerequisites?

It especially builds on work published in the following articles: Calliess/Mertens, Transnational Corporations, Global Competition Policy, and the Shortcomings of Private International Law, Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 18 (2011) 2, p. 843; Calliess/Renner, The Public and the Private Dimensions of Transnational Commercial Law, German Law Journal 10 (2009) 10, p. 1341; Renner, Towards a Hierarchy of Norms in Transnational Law?, Journal of International Arbitration 26 (2009) 4, p. 533.

BOOK REVIEW: "Asian Industrial Clusters, Global Competitiveness and New Policy Initiatives" edited by Bernard Ganne and Yveline Lecler

BOOK REVIEW: "Asian Industrial Clusters, Global Competitiveness and New Policy Initiatives" edited by Bernard Ganne and Yveline Lecler

Transnational Corporations, Global Competition Policy, and the Shortcomings of Private International Law

In this article we criticize the so-called more economic approach to European competition law for disregarding the importance of a functional system of private law. Based on the availability of market governance as an alternative mode for organizing transactions, it is presumed that vertical integration, which is the central organizational structure of transnational corporations, is economically efficient. Since the enforcement of cross-border contracts by state-organized systems of private law, however, is insufficient, make-or-buy decisions in international commerce are prejudiced against arms' length transactions in markets. Consequently, international transactions are integrated vertically into firms' structures to a higher degree than comparable domestic transactions organized in the shadow of domestic private law. The resulting overintegration of world markets leads to reduced competitive incentives and high bureaucratic costs. Contrary to the fundamental assumptions of the more economic approach, vertical integration does not, therefore, foster consumer welfare in the global economy per se. However, as this overintegration is a reasonable reaction to the deficits in state protection of cross-border contracts, a strict world antitrust law cannot counter it without suppressing cross-border exchange. Thus, international private law policy establishing legal certainty in the enforcement of cross-border contracts currently seems to be the instrument of choice in promoting competition in the global economy.

Developing Countries and International Competition Law and Policy

The breakdown in the negotiations for the adoption of multilateral competition rules through the WTO in 2003 is most commonly attributed to the opposition voiced by developing and least-developed countries who were suspicious of attempts to facilitate market access and permit possible interference with their domestic industrial policy. It is not always evident however that such a regime would have been counter to their interests. Greater efforts to co-ordinate the detection and elimination of global cartels, for example, would have been highly beneficial to developing countries where these cartels have a disproportionate impact. This paper will examine some of these issues within the context of the utility of global and domestic competition law and policy for developing and least-developed countries. While developing countries may have been right to question the overall benefits of a multilateral scheme, the enactment of a domestic competition law, which is mindful of the contextual issues at stake in these economies, may make an important contribution to economic development.

Competition Policy in the Global Economy: An On-Line Case Book

This on-line casebook examines the fields of international antitrust and international trade law. In general, it examines how the United States and other jurisdictions regulate competition among firms which do business abroad. This will include how competition policy regulates individuals and firms located outside the United States in their competition with United States firms as well as the rules governing United States firms. These materials are intended for use in a U.S. style law school class or seminar and designed to provide the base knowledge necessary to engage in sophisticated research in the field and to produce a research based paper of 20-25 pages in length. By necessity, these materials are in English and have primarily a United States focus. The value of an on-line casebook in this field goes beyond the merely the cost savings and convenience. It is also an opportunity for a collaborative exercise that will allow for the creation of a more in-depth and creative set of materials that can be done in traditional hard cover format. Use of the casebook for educational purposes with attribution is available on a royalty-free basis under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. For all other uses please contact Professor Waller at the Institute for Consumer Antitrust Studies at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. I therefore invite any competition law teacher or scholar to submit additional chapters on other competition law topics or jurisdictions not covered in these materials for inclusion in future iterations of these materials. Materials must be original or accompanied with proof of permission/license to use for this purpose and be in English and in either Word or Word Perfect. Submission of materials constitutes your permission to include the material in future editions of the on-line casebook for educational purposes with attribution available on a royalty-free basis under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Submission of materials also constitutes permission to edit the submitted material for style, content, and compatibility with the existing text, although every reasonable effort will be made to allow you to review edited material before posting on-line. I look forward to working with the global competition law and policy community to make this the most effective and interesting teaching tool possible.

Asian Industrial Clusters, Global Competitiveness and New Policy Initiatives

Overview: Introduction: Industrial Districts, Clusters and Poles of Competitiveness What can be Learned from Asian Industrial Clusters? (B Ganne & Y Lecler) From an Industrial Policy Approach to an Industrial Cluster Approach: Japan, East Asia and Silicon Valley (A Suehiro) Japan - The Japanese Clustering Initiative Approach: Public Policies in Japan: Industrial Revitalization, Knowledge Creation and Clustering (A Hattori) Competence and Profitability of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises The Case of Kawasaki SMEs (M Miyamoto) China - The Specificities of Chinese Industrial Clusters: Their Importance and Weaknesses: New Phenomena and Challenges of Clusters in China in the New Era of Globalization (J Wang) The Emergence of Industrial Clusters in Wenzhou, China (T Marukawa) Distribution System of China's Industrial Clusters: Case Study of Yiwu China Commodity City (K Ding) South East Asia - Clusters and the Building of Competitiveness in Emerging Countries: Some Evidence from South East Asia: From Craft Villages to Clusters in Vietnam: Transition through Globalisation (Q N Nguyen) The Prevalence of Social Embedding in Vietnamese Industrial Clusters (S J Appold & Q T Nguyen) Thailand's Cluster Initiatives: Successes, Failures and Impacts on National Innovation System (P Intarakumnerd) and other papers.

Why (no) global competition policy is a tough choice

This paper analyzes the global aspects of competition policy. The effects of a merger in the global marketplace will generally be asymmetric, and consequently lead to a bias in domestic merger decisions. In order to compare different policy regimes, we ascribe general objective functions to the respective authorities and employ a stochastic notion of mergers. We show that under the territoriality principle, the resulting global policy is too lax, whereas when domestic agencies assume extra-territorial powers the resulting policy is inefficiently strict. A global authority would achieve the first best outcome. The gains, however, would be distributed unevenly, which may explain the difficulty of instituting such an authority.

Why (no) Global Competition Policy is a Tough Choice

This paper analyzes the global aspects of competition policy. The effects of a merger in the global marketplace will generally be asymmetric, and consequently lead to a bias in domestic merger decisions. In order to compare different policy regimes, we ascribe general objective functions to the respective authorities and employ a stochastic notion of mergers. We show that under the territoriality principle, the resulting global policy is too lax, whereas when domestic agencies assume extra-territorial powers the resulting policy is inefficiently strict. A global authority would achieve the first best outcome. The gains, however, would be distributed unevenly, which may explain the difficulty of instituting such an authority.

Corporate governance systems: Effects of capital and labor market congruency on corporate innovation and global competitiveness

Drawing on institutional economics, this article addresses how institutional congruence between capital and labor markets influences corporate governance systems, which, in turn, create differences in national corporate innovation and entrepreneurship systems and subsequently global competitiveness. We argue that such institutional congruence cultivates two ideal corporate governance systems. The first ideal type is the market-based system with transactional capital and external labor markets. This corporate governance system facilitates more explorative and revolutionary innovations. The second ideal type is the relationship-based governance system with relational capital and internal labor markets. This system facilitates more exploitative and evolutionary innovations. We wrap up by discussing how institutional adjustments are being pursued for each governance system because each type has advantages and disadvantages that require adjustments. Finally, we present implications that our congruence model suggests for global competitiveness, high-tech management, and public policy regarding national innovations systems.