D uring the past few decades, national security plays a central role in the process of economic development. Also, foreign investment and trade have rapidly increased worldwide and have enhanced economic growth in developing countries. Although foreign investment and trade bring huge economic benefits, many developing countries fear that by opening up markets to competition and forei...

European Union countries have implemented widespread reforms to product markets in order to stimulate competition, innovation and economic growth. We provide empirical evidence that the reforms carried out under the EU Single Market Programme (SMP) were associated with increased product market competition, as measured by a reduction in average profitability, and with a subsequent increase in in...

This article examines the political origins of antitrust enforcement in developing countries. I consider how the organization and political influence of business affects governments’ commitments to competition policy institutions. The analysis predicts cross-class coalitions with contending regulatory preferences. An alliance of incumbent producers and affiliated labor groups (“insiders”) oppos...

There is a widespread sense that over the last two decades firms have been decentralizing decisions to employees further down the managerial hierarchy. Economists have developed a range of theories to account for delegation, but there is less empirical evidence, especially across countries. This has limited the ability to understand the phenomenon of decentralization. To address the empirical l...

The theory of regulatory competition in environmental policy predicts a 'race to the bottom' of standards. The article tests the theory for the first time directly using environmental output data for 24 countries over a period of 35 years. It finds a clear 'race to the top' which be partly explained by the search for international harmonisation when competition is imminent.

The theory of regulatory competition in environmental policy predicts a 'race to the bottom' of standards. This article tests the theory using environmental output data for 24 countries from 1970 to 2005. It finds a clear 'race to the top' and a search for international harmonization when competition is imminent.

OBJECTIVES To describe alternative policies aimed at encouraging price competition in generic drug markets in countries with strict price regulation, and to present some case studies drawn from the European experience. METHODS Systematic literature review of articles and technical reports published after 1999. RESULTS The shortcomings in consumer price competition observed in some European ...

This paper aims to (a) calculate Devereux and Griffith’s (2003) forward-looking effective tax rates for 12 Asian countries over a span of 30 years, (b) show the impact of tax holidays on the effective tax rate in Asian countries, and (c) empirically explore the possibility of tax competition among Asian countries. Through relevant analyses, I arrive at three key conclusions. First, while small ...

In normative public economics, inter-governmental competition is usually viewed as harmful. Although empirical support for this position does not abound, market integration has intensi ̄ed competition among developed countries. In this paper we argue that when assessing welfare e®ects of inter-governmental competition for various forms of government imperfections (the public choice critique), th...