Antitrust Goals in Developing Countries: Policy Alternatives and Normative Choices

Posted by Social Science Research Network

Antitrust Goals in Developing Countries: Policy Alternatives and Normative Choices Dina I. Waked (Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris)

Abstract: This Article outlines the different policy alternatives that could guide antitrust enforcement in developing countries. These include efficiency-based goals (allocative, productive, economic, and dynamic efficiency) and non-efficiency-based goals (protecting small businesses; achieving international competitiveness; eradicating poverty; and promoting fairness, equality, and justice). The actual antitrust goals selected by fifty developing countries are then presented. Finally, a proposal is made with regards to what developing countries should aim at achieving with their antitrust law enforcement. This normative take is geared towards realizing dynamic efficiencies or technological progress, coupled with redistribution through antitrust rules, as the accelerators of growth and development. Promoting growth through innovation, as an antitrust objective, corresponds to a desire to incorporate antitrust policy within a broader development agenda that is more suitable to developing countries than static efficiency-based goals.