Institutional analysis as an approach to assessing competition policy during transition : a study of Poland, the Czech and Slovak Republics and Hungary

Abstract

Competition policy is still being established in Eastern Europe - after all» it is not longer than half a decade ago that competition legislation was introduced in the first place. Controversy over its recommendability for developing economies in general, and transitional economies in particular, is seemingly not entirely closed. Yet be it for conviction in the utility of competition as an economic policy instrument, or for "external" reasons (among which the desire to comply with the conditions proposed by the EU in view of obtaining future membership is not the last), since the beginning of the decade all Eastern European countries adopted (even successively adapted) elaborate competition regimes, and set up institutional frameworks to operate them. After accumulating half a decade of implementation experience during transition, we are now entering the "era of a critical approach" to Eastern European competition policies. Meanwhile, comparative studies of the particularities of competition policy in transition multiply. As a common place, studies concentrating on competition policy in transition economies (be they economic, legal, socio-political or combined in substance) fall short of "locating" competition policy within the intricate context of economic reform policies undergone by transition economies. By focusing on aspects like policy rationales, policy implementation output and institutional specifics, such studies insufficiently explore the main characteristic of competition policies during transition: evolution is marked by the interaction with other economic reform policy components. Competition policy-making would inevitably be conditioned by the characteristics of other economic reform policies, while at the same time the latter should result modified from adjusting to competition-enhancing objectives.