Julian L' Clarke, Simon J' Evenett, and Krista Lucenti'

1

Extracting the most out of reforms What role for
competition?
Julian L. Clarke, Simon J. Evenett, and Krista
Lucenti. CPFTR Mid-Term Meeting, 26 April 2005.
2
Organisation of this presentation.

• The two questions that motivate this paper.
• Overview of database of newspaper articles.
• Overview of database of academic papers.
• Potential implications for policymaking and for
  research.

3
Motivating questions.

• Since 1990 in how many instances has it been
  shown that anti-competitive acts have reduced the
  benefits of trade, investment, and regulatory
  reforms?
• How prevalent are anti-competitive acts in
  developing countries and are some acts alleged
  more often than others?
• Policy relevance of questions.

4
Database of newspaper articles.

• Assembled using Lexis-Nexis database.
• 11,000 news publications in English and other
  languages.
• Our country focus developing economies.
• 27 search terms for anti-competitive acts.
• Identify newspaper articles with allegations of
  anti-competitive conduct by developing countries.
• Caveats.

5
Database of newspaper articles.

• 308 articles (209 since 1 Jan 2001) containing
• 325 allegations against private firms.
• 546 alleged anti-competitive acts.
• 55 developing countries.
• 102 lines of business affected.
• 10 countries account for 122 of the 322
  allegations, and 175 of the 308 newspaper
  articles.

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Types of acts alleged.
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Who makes allegations?
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Allegations concerning foreign firms.
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Database of academic studies.

• Searched 11 electronic archives of articles, 7
  international institutions websites, and 1 NGO.
• Search terms reflect competition, competition
  policy, and anti-competitive acts and three types
  of reform (trade, investment, and regulatory.)
• Covered World Bank list of developing countries.
• Four types of study
• Econometric analyses.
• Case studies.
• Survey articles.
• Policy advice papers.

10
Database of academic studies.

• 281 studies
• 119 case studies.
• 49 econometric analysis.
• 65 survey articles.
• 48 policy advice papers.
• 90 articles published in academic articles.
• 76 articles put on web by IFIs.
• 187 studies covered a single countrys experience
  and 43 focused on an explicit region.
• 111 studies covered more than one industry.
• Water, telecoms, and electricity sector well
  covered.

11
Database of academic studies.

• Database heavily skewed towards regulatory
  reforms (91 percent).
• 281 allegations of anti-competitive acts.
• 49 involve vague statements about abuse of
  market power.
• 50 other statements are clearer.
• In nine sectors allegations of anti-competitive
  acts were made in more than half of studies.
• 73 alleged acts were committed by foreigners, but
  proportion is higher in Latin America and
  Caribbean.
• Recurrence of some large firms and consortia in
  allegations.

12
Findings on reform impacts.
13
Effect of competition-related variables on
reforms.
14
Policy recommendations of studies in second
database.
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Potential implications for policy and research.

• Prevalence of acts in developing countries.
• Predominance of cartel allegations.
• Allegations against domestic firms dominate.
• Allegations by foreign firms against domestic
  firms rising.
• Relationship between policy recommendations and
  types of study.
• Econometric studies have not included measures of
  prevalence of anti-competitive acts.
• Imprecision in characterisation of
  anti-competitive acts.