An Essay: Can Competition Law and Policy Be Made Relevant for Inclusive Growth of Developing Countries?

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 164-172
Author(s):  
Frederic Jenny

In their book Making Markets Work for Africa, Eleanor Fox and Mor Bakhoum argue that competition law and policy can be made more relevant for the inclusive growth of developing countries if a bottom-up approach is followed. They suggest that the most detrimental obstacles to competition faced by each country differ with their stage of economic development and that national competition laws should therefore be designed so as to allow each country to address the specific challenges it faces. This essay discusses the approach of the authors and points to some areas where further research is warranted in light of the recent experience of Sub-Saharan African countries.

Author(s):  
Cheng Thomas K

This book explores the relationship between competition law and economic development, which takes on growing importance as more and more developing countries have adopted competition law in recent years. The work tackles two principal questions. The first is whether competition law enforcement promotes growth, which helps to determine how seriously developing countries should enforce their competition laws. The second is how developing countries should craft their competition law rules in light of the need to incorporate development concerns, the need to reflect the special economic characteristics of developing countries, and the need to improve the administrability of competition law rules to suit the enforcement capacity of developing country authorities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-125
Author(s):  
Dong-Hwan Kim ◽  
Yo Sop Choi

AbstractCompetition laws and policies play an important role in developing countries. More than 130 countries have adopted either a competition law or a similar framework of anti-monopoly laws that aims to improve social welfare. Most African countries have already started developing their competition regimes, and regional trade organizations in Africa have provided competition sections in their free trade agreements to enhance enforcement cooperation. For fledgling competition regimes in Africa, the improvement of effective public enforcement and competition law culture has become an essential driver of competition law development. In particular, Egypt has demonstrated its efforts towards the modernization of competition law and the enhancement of fair and free competition, which is an example of the development of the competition regime in a developing African country. This article discusses the development of the Egyptian competition regime from a comparative perspective and suggests proposals for its further modernization.


Author(s):  
Eleanor M. Fox ◽  
Mor Bakhoum

This book explores sub-Saharan Africa, markets, economic development and competition policy. Specifically, the book examines the special social-economic-political situation in sub-Saharan African countries at various stages of development, from small and quite undeveloped countries of West Africa to the middle-class economy of South Africa. It considers what these countries do and what they can be expected to do in competition law and policy and relates these realities and capabilities to what has become known as the “international standards” of competition law and policy. The book seeks to determine the fit of developing countries’ needs with developed countries’ standards, and proposes a new way forward that takes on board the UN post-millennium development goals of sustainable inclusive development.


Author(s):  
David J. Gerber

Competition law shapes the conduct of business firms by deterring conduct that can harm both private interests—businesses and their employees, owners, and customers—and public interests such as the efficiency of markets, economic development, economic growth, and perhaps even social and political and economic stability. Despite its often immense importance, competition law is often poorly understood, and there are major differences among competition law regimes. This Guide makes competition law understandable and accessible to people everywhere. It provides a new set of tools that help the reader to make sense of competition law in any country and to recognize differences among them. It presents an integrated picture of competition law that is both domestic and global, and it uses this view to cut through the vast amount of data about competition laws and shape it to maximize access and understanding. It asks a central question: What factors influence decisions? Decisions in any competition law regime are often influenced by factors outside the host country, so the Guide shows how competition laws influence each other. It pays particular attention to the most influential competition law regimes—US and EU—and notes patterns of competition law in East Asia, Latin America, and developing countries.


This book presents a new stage in the contributions of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) to the development of Competition Law and policy. These countries have significant influence in their respective regions and in the world. The changing global environment means greater political and economic role for the BRICS and other emerging countries. BRICS countries are expected to contribute nearly half of all global gross domestic product growth by 2020. For more than a century, the path of Competition Law has been defined by the developed and industrialized countries of the world. Much later, developing countries and emerging economies came on the scene. They experience many of the old competition problems, but they also experience new problems, and experience even the old problems differently. Where are the fora to talk about Competition Law and policy fit for developing and emerging economies? The contributors in this book are well-known academic and practising economists and lawyers from both developed and developing countries. The chapters begin with a brief introduction of the topic, followed by a critical discussion and a conclusion. Accordingly, each chapter is organized around a central argument made by its author(s) in relation to the issue or case study discussed. These arguments are thoughtful, precise, and very different from each another. Each chapter is written to be a valuable freestanding contribution to our collective wisdom. The set of case studies as a whole helps to build a collection of different perspectives on competition policy.


Author(s):  
Husam Rjoub ◽  
Chuka Uzoma Ifediora ◽  
Jamiu Adetola Odugbesan ◽  
Benneth Chiemelie Iloka ◽  
João Xavier Rita ◽  
...  

Sub-Saharan African countries are known to be bedeviled with some challenges hindering the economic development. Meanwhile, some of these issues have not been exhaustively investigated in the context of the region. Thus, this study aimed at investigating the implications of government effectiveness, availability of natural resources, and security threats on the regions’ economic development. Yearly data, spanning from 2007 to 2020, was converted from low frequency (yearly) to high frequency (quarterly) and utilized. Data analysis was conducted using Dynamic heterogeneous panel level estimators (PMG and CS-ARDL). Findings show that while PMG estimator confirms a long-run causal effect of governance, natural resources, and security threats on economic development, only natural resources show a short-run causal effect with economic development, while the CS-ARDL (model 2) confirms the significance of all the variables both in the long and short-run. Moreover, the ECT coefficients for both models were found to be statistically significant at less than 1% significance level, which indicates that the systems return back to equilibrium in case of a shock that causes disequilibrium, and in addition, reveals a stable long-run cointegration among the variables in the model. Finally, this study suggests that the policy makers in SSA countries should place more emphasis on improving governance, managing security challenges, and effectively utilizing rents from the natural resources, as all these have severe implications for the economic development of the region if not addressed.


2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shiju Varghese Mazhuvanchery

The relationship between competition law and development continues to be a subject that excites many. The appropriate design of a competition law with developmental dimensions is a contentious issue. With the enactment of the Competition Act 2002, India joined the hundred odd developing countries that have adopted new competition laws over the last two decades. After a hiatus of seven years, substantive provisions of the Act have been notified recently. The Indian Act presents a perfect case study for the developmental dimensions of competition law. This paper explores the events that led to the enactment of the new law in India and analyses its provisions from a developmental perspective. The paper concludes that many of the provisions in the law may come in the way of the realization of developmental goals.


2012 ◽  
pp. 226-242
Author(s):  
Divine Odame Appiah ◽  
Francis Kemausuor

This chapter espouses the spatial relationships between energy, environment and socio-economic development, as some of the main challenges African countries are grappling with. Energy is the main driver of all forms of socio-economic activities occurring within the human space over time. In Africa, however, low access to energy has, to a greater extent, hampered the socio-economic development of the continent. Although the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) do not specifically stipulate on any energy target, the realization of all the goals stands threatened if households, commercial and industrial activities do not get the rightful access in terms of availability and affordability to energy systems, including their appropriate conversion technologies. The authors explore the dynamics of energy, socio-economic development and environmental sustainability in a nexus of the triple challenges facing Africa, from different African scenarios. In Africa, the obstacles opposing the continent’s bid to expand the energy frontiers from the traditional sources of wood and fossil fuels into other second and third generation energy forms have been constructed in the areas of intense competition for arable lands for food crops and feed stocks cultivation. Suffice to say that increasing population densities, food shortages and insecurity and malnutrition with associated diseases have culminated into acute forms of poverty in recent years in Africa; the problems have been aggravated by the wanton degradation of the environmental resource base and the over-dependence of particular energy mix at both the rural and the urban settings. The above disposition therefore, militates greatly against the socio-economic efforts of most countries in sub-Saharan Africa. From a systemic perspective, the energy sector which drives almost every sub-sector of the broader socio-economic activity needs to factor the environmental consequences of extraction and use, with the attending impacts of climate variability and change in a vicious cycle of sustainability.


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