Abstract:

Market efficiency is considered one of the major drivers of productivity and thus of competitiveness. While it is almost generally accepted that competition policy should strive for efficiency, it is not clear how efficiency should be achieved. The economic goal of competition policy, reflected in the chosen welfare standard, shapes the path to be followed. The choice of a welfare standard can affect to a large extent the way competition authorities asses certain cases as it determines what types of efficiency are taken into account. This paper focuses on the analysis of major approaches to the legitimate goal of competition policy in terms of attitude towards different types of efficiency.