Assessing the Quality of Competition Policy: The Case of Horizontal Merger Enforcement
William Kovacic, Apr 30, 2009
This article suggests how a jurisdiction might best go about evaluating the quality of its competition policy system. It urges that competition agencies and collateral institutions strive to improve our ability to measure the economic effects of merger control and to verify the consequences of different approaches to enforcement. The article uses merger control in the United States as its main illustration, but the article´s observations apply to other areas of competition policy oversight, as well. The article seeks to encourage the recent trend within the global competition policy community of accepting a norm that focuses greater attention on the evaluation of the economic effects of enforcement decisions especially by developing better quantitative measures of actual economic effects and the assessment of the processes by which competition agencies examine individual transactions.
Featured News
FTC, State Regulators Step Up Scrutiny of Data Collected From Connected Vehicles
Feb 20, 2026 by
CPI
FTC Asks Appeals Court to Reinstate Expanded Merger Disclosure Rule
Feb 19, 2026 by
CPI
Lawmakers Seek GAO Review of State and Federal AI Regulations
Feb 19, 2026 by
CPI
UK Flags Editorial Content Concerns in Getty-Shutterstock Merger
Feb 19, 2026 by
CPI
DOJ Examines Warner Bros. Sale as Theater Chains Voice Concerns
Feb 19, 2026 by
CPI
Antitrust Mix by CPI
Antitrust Chronicle® – The Gig Economy
Feb 19, 2026 by
CPI
Market Power and Governance Power: New Tools for Antitrust Enforcement in the Decentralized Gig Economy
Feb 19, 2026 by
Seth C. Oranburg
10 Years of Labor Antitrust Guidance: Lessons for Workers and the Gig Economy
Feb 19, 2026 by
Richard Powers & Michael Swerdlow
Antitrust & Gig Workers: Labor Exemption As Protection
Feb 19, 2026 by
Marina Lao
Beyond Non Competes: Platform Tethered Non Circumvention Clauses for Digital Platforms
Feb 19, 2026 by
Scott Nelson, Hugh Hollman & John Baker