Sydney, 26 March 2018: This workshop presented the results of an OECD review of the Australian Pecuniary Penalties for Competition Law Infringements while launching a debate among Australian and international experts from a variety of backgrounds.
With gender equality increasingly at the top of political and social agendas, Chris Pike of the OECD Competition Division reflects on the potential for introducing greater gender awareness into competition policy.
Paris, 31 January 2018: This workshop on regulation and competition in light of digitalisation allowed competition officials to share their experiences with existing regulations that have proved restrictive for digitalisation and started a discussion of how a competition assessment methodology can deal with the most common issues.
Paris, 30 January 2018: This workshop on cartel screening in the digital era provided competition officials with an insight into the latest developments on screening methods and an opportunity to share their experiences. Related documentation and presentations available here.
This report documents procurement regulations and practices in Mexico's main electricity company (Comisión Federal de Electricidad) and makes policy recommendations in key procurement areas.
Significant corruption, labour, human rights and environmental risks are associated with the organisation of large sporting events. The OECD has instruments and expertise in implementation of complex projects can help host governments, event organisers and their business partners ensure that the world of sport remains associated with the traditional values of excellence and fair play.
Many laws and regulations set the rules for how businesses enter, operate and exit a market and competition assessments help to ensure that these regulations are not overly or inadvertently restrictive for businesses and consumers. This article looks at the tangible contributions competition assessment is making to reforms underway in Greece.
Some policies drive growth, others act to redistribute income or wealth. While competition has long been known to drive economic growth, it can also make an important contribution to reducing income and wealth inequality.
Some policies drive growth, others act to redistribute income or wealth. While competition has long been known to drive economic growth, it can also make an important contribution to reducing income and wealth inequality. See our paper on competition and inequality.
Lack of competition can drive up prices of goods and services, with substantive negative effects for the poor, whose consumption basket is dominated by first necessity goods and services. Using new data, this study calibrates the overall impact of market power, showing a substantial impact on wealth inequality in the eight countries examined.
The combination of big data with technologically advanced tools is changing the competitive landscape in many markets and sectors. While this is producing benefits and efficiencies, it is also raising concerns of possible anti-competitive behaviour. This paper looks at whether algorithms can make tacit collusion easier and discusses some of the challenges they present for both competition law enforcement and market regulation.
This article by OECD's Antonio Capobianco and Pedro Gonzaga focuses on whether algorithms can make tacit collusion easier, both in oligopolistic markets and in markets which do not manifest the structural features that are usually associated with the risk of collusion. It was published in the August 2017 edition of the CPI Chronicle.
This publication puts forward a research agenda that advocates the importance of market competition, effective market regulation, and competition policies for achieving inclusive growth and shared prosperity in emerging and developing economies. It is the result of a global partnership and shared commitment between the World Bank Group and the OECD.
With new business models emerging, competition in the electricity sector is beginning to stir. This article by the OECD's Chris Pike looks at how the rise of the digital economy has led numerous markets to experience radical innovation in business models.
A more open world economy brings about new opportunities, stimulates creativity and innovation. It enables poorer countries to catch up and exploits global economies of scale. But globalisation also brings challenges, as it might spread the benefits unequally among people and regions, some of which are less well positioned to seize its potential. These benefits and challenges also apply for competition policy in a globalised world.
Drawing on data presented in the 2017 OECD Business and Finance Outlook, this article looks at some of the forces influencing recent economic developments and asks what can be done to ensure a “fairer” global economy.
The OECD Business and Finance Scoreboard accompanies the OECD Business and Finance Outlook by providing a commented overview of selected indicators and data related to corporate performance, banking, capital markets, pensions and investments.
International co-operation in competition law enforcement is at the core of the OECD competition-related work. This inventory covers over 140 co-operation MoUs between competition agencies where at least one of the signatories is a competition authority of an OECD Member, Associate or Participant to the OECD Competition Committee, or the European Union.
Governments everywhere are increasingly interested in assessing the effects of their policies and the effectiveness of public institutions. Competition policy is no exception. Competition agencies affect the economy by taking decisions on cases under competition law. With their governments, they can influence market competition in the economy more widely through policy interventions.
This report analyses procurement rules and regulations in Mexico's state-owed petroleum company (PEMEX) and makes policy recommendations to promote competition and fight bid rigging in accordance with international best practices.
Productivity growth is essential to providing sustainable increases in living standards. Malaysia has reached a development stage where growth needs to be driven more by productivity gains than the sheer accumulation of capital and labour inputs.
Malaysia has sustained over four decades of rapid, inclusive growth, reducing its dependence on agriculture and commodity exports to become a more diversified, modern and open economy.
In the framework of a project with the Mexican Ministry of Economy, this report provides an overview of international experiences and best practices regarding the role of courts in the implementation of competition policy. It presents different institutional designs, the role of courts, courts specialisation and their benefits as well as their relationship with other government bodies and stakeholders.
This document describes and discusses a new supply side framework that quantifies the impact of structural reforms on per capita income in OECD countries.
Turkey’s manufacturing sector has expanded considerably but not efficiently and competitively enough.
Despite major progress, Turkey still lags behind most comparable countries in terms of exported value added per capita. Its remarkable economic performance over the past 15 years has not been sufficiently backed by gains in export market shares, in particular when measured in value added terms.
In the framework of an OECD project with the Mexican Ministry of Economy, this manual provides guidance on how to carry out an inquiry or examination into a particular market when there is a suspicion or indication that a market is not functioning well. It explains what market examinations are as well as their purposes, intended outcomes and substantive content.
Reforms that boost growth by enhancing economic flexibility often meet strong opposition related to concerns that they may imply adverse consequences for categories of workers. This study investigates how making product or labour market regulation more flexible changes workers’ risks of moving out of employment and jobless people’s chances of becoming employed.
We’ve all felt it – the rush you get when you find a great bargain at a price way less than you would happily have paid. But will these moments continue in the digital world as shopping moves online and the scope for firms to charge different prices to different customers increases?
Lifting many of the regulations stifling business competition in Greece would benefit both consumers, through lower prices, and firms, via higher turnover, according to the OECD.
The OECD’s latest Competition Assessment of Greece looks at e-commerce, construction, media, wholesale trade and a number of manufacturing sectors such as chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
Good corporate governance plays a vital role in underpinning the integrity and efficiency of financial markets. Mr. Rintaro Tamaki, Deputy Secretary General of the OECD, will open the 2016 OECD Asian Roundtable on Corporate Governance on Monday 24 October with Mr. Chang Jae Lee, Vice Minister of Justice in Korea, to address corporate governance standards and practices in Asia.
The post-crisis recovery in entrepreneurial activity remains mixed across countries, but new data released today by the OECD provides tentative signs of a turning point, with trends in enterprise creation rates pointing upwards in most economies.
This report shows how competition and public procurement agencies have been using the 2012 OECD Recommendation on Fighting Bid Rigging to raise awareness of bid rigging risks and develop tools to detect bid rigging in public procurement.
Disruptive innovations are beginning to transform legal services and the manner in which they are delivered. Competition authorities can play a role in advocating for regulatory systems that reflect current market realities and ensure market access for pro-competitive disruptive innovations.
Kazakhstan's competition system underwent a peer review of its law and regulation at the 2015 Global Forum on Competition on 29-30 October 2015. The report was launched in Astana on 25 May 2016 and provides a throught insight into the current strenghts and weakness of the Kazakhstan competition regime.
Paris, 19 April 2016: This capacity building workshop on ex-post evaluation of enforcement decisions by competition authorities provided capacity building to competition officials that have already been or will be involved in the ex-post evaluation of enforcement decisions.
Competition policy is vital for creating opportunities for small business and big industry alike. It benefits consumers by reducing prices and increasing the choice of goods and services. This joint World Bank Group-OECD event showcased countries whose pro-competition reform efforts serve as examples for their regional and international peers and introduced tools to guide the design of new and improved policies.
Disruptive innovation is redefining markets around the world and the Latin American and Caribbean region is no exception. In the run-up to the Latin American and Caribbean Competition Forum in Mexico-City on 12-13 April 2016, this article looks at the competition enforcement challenges and advocacy opportunities around disruptive innovations in the region.
The OECD’s Annual Meeting at Ministerial Level reinforced member governments’ support across a broad range of key OECD work.
Market studies provide competition authorities with an in-depth understanding of how sectors and markets work. The OECD and the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office are providing support to Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama and Peru in their use of market studies as an important competition tool.
This OECD report presents market studies practices in the six Latin America countries and provides areas for improvement on how to improve their legal and institutional set-up based on competition agencies’ practices.
Third Annual Conference on the theme of "Fiscal Policies and the Green Economy Transition: Generating Knowledge – Creating Impact" held at the University of Venice from 29 through 30 January 2015. The press release is available.
This report documents procurement regulations and practices in Mexico's main electricity company (Comisión Federal de Electricidad) and makes policy recommendations in key procurement areas.
Costa Rica's competition system underwent a peer review of its laws and regulations at the 2014 Latin American Competition Forum on 16-17 September 2014. The report was launched in San José on 4 December 2014 and provides a through insight into the current strengths and weakness of the Costa Rican competition regime.
Governments are increasingly assessing the effects of their policies and effectiveness of public institutions, and competition agencies are no exception. This factsheet was elaborated to help competition agencies advocate their work. It contains evidence on the links between competition and macro-economic outcomes.
International co-operation in competition law enforcement is at the core of the OECD competition-related work. Prepared by the OECD Competition Committee, this inventory focuses mainly on fifteen bilateral comprehensive government-to-government co-operation agreements where at least one of the signatories is an OECD country.
The President of the French Republic, Mr. François Hollande, met the Heads of five international economic organisations at the OECD on Friday 17th October to discuss the challenges facing the global economy.
Globalisation has brought a much more international dimension to competition law. This paper presents evidence of the complexity of co-operation between competition agencies and the likely challenges they will encounter in the future to enforce competition law and co-operate effectively.
Merger control constitutes an essential component of an effective competition system. This in-depth study of Chile’s merger control regime assesses the main existing issues in the current system and provides suggestions for improvement based on OECD and international standards.