Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-g78kv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-26T17:50:54.605Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Reform of UK Competition Policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2020

Donald Hay  and
John Vickers
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The most important government review of UK competition since Mrs Thatcher came into office has recently taken place. The review, which was announced in June 1986, was concerned with two aspects of policy—mergers and restrictive trade practices (RTP). Its conclusions were published in March 1988 in a Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) document, ‘Mergers policy’, and in a major Green Paper entitled ‘Review of restrictive trade practices policy’ (Cm 331, 1988). The proposals on RTP involve a fundamental change in policy. The new law will consider restrictive practices in terms of their economic effects upon competition and not, as at present, with the emphasis on their legal form. This reform will require new methods of operation and will be backed up by tougher powers and penalties than have hitherto been available in Britain.

Type
Articles
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 125 , August 1988 , pp. 56 - 68
Copyright
Copyright © 1988 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

This is the first article from members of the CLARE Group to appear in the Review. Future articles will normally appear about twice a year. The Review is pleased to give hospitality to the deliberations of the CLARE Group but is not necessarily in agreement with the views expressed. Members of the CLARE Group are M. J. Artis, A. J. C. Britton, W. A. Brown, C. H. Feinstein, C. A. E. Goodhart, D. A. Hay, J. A. Kay, R. C. O. Matthews, M. H. Miller, P. M. Oppenheimer, M. V. Posner, W. B. Reddaway, J. R. Sargent, M. F-G. Scott, Z. A. Silberston, J. H. B. Tew, J. S. Vickers, S. Wadhwani.

References

Baumol, W., Panzar, J. and Willig, R. (1982), Contestable Markets and the Theory of Industry Structure, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York.Google Scholar
Department of Trade and Industry (1988), ‘Mergers policy’, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
Franks, J. and Harris, R. (1986), ‘Shareholder wealth effects of corporate takeovers: the UK experience 1955-85’, London Business School Working Paper.Google Scholar
Green Paper (1978), ‘A review of monopolies and mergers policy’, Cmnd.7198, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
Green Paper (1979), ‘A review of restrictive trade practices policy’, Cmnd.7512, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
Green Paper (1988), ‘Review of restrictive trade practices policy’, Cm.331, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
Grossman, S. and Hart, O. (1980), ‘Takeover bids, the free-rider problem, and the theory of the corporation’, Bell Journal of Economics, no.11, pp.42–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hay, D. (1987), ‘Competition and industrial policies’, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, vol. 3, no.3, pp.27–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hay, G. (1985), ‘Vertical restraints’, Fiscal Studies, vol. 6, pp.37–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Journal of Economic Perspectives, (1988), vol. 2, ‘Symposium on takeovers’ pp.3–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kay, J. and Sharpe, T. (1982), ‘The anti-competitive practice’, Fiscal Studies, vol. 3, pp.191–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kay, J. and Silberston, A. (1984), ‘The new industrial policy-privatisation and competition’, Midland Bank Review, spring, pp.8–16.Google Scholar
Korah, V. (1982), Competition Law of Britain and the Common Market, 3rd edition, Nijhoff, London.Google Scholar
Meeks, G. (1977), ‘Disappointing marriage: A study of the gains from merger’, Department of Applied Economics Occasional Paper no.51, Oxford.Google Scholar
Merkin, R. and Williams, K. (1985), Competition Law: Anti-trust policy in the United Kingdom and the EEC, Sweet and Maxwell, London.Google Scholar
Monopolies and Mergers Commission (1987), ‘British Airways plc and British Caledonian plc: a report on the proposed merger’, Cm.247, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
Sharpe, T. (1985), ‘British competition policy in perspective’, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, vol. 1, no.3, pp.80–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vickers, J. and Hay, D. (1987), ‘The economics of market dominance’, in Hay, D. and Vickers, J. (eds), The Economics of Market Dominance, Blackwell, Oxford.Google Scholar
Vickers, J. and Yarrow, G. (1988), Privatization: An Economic Analysis, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.Google Scholar
White Paper (1988), ‘DTI—the department for Enterprise’, Cm.278, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
Williamson, O. (1975), Markets and Hierarchies: Analysis and antitrust implications, Free Press, New York.Google Scholar
Yarrow, G. (1985), ‘Shareholder protection, compulsory acquisition and the efficiency of the takeover process’, Journal of Industrial Economics, vol. 34, pp.3–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar