Exploring Aspects of the State of Competition in the EU

There is growing evidence that over the past few decades competition across markets in the EU may have weakened: industry concentration and markups appear to have increased, while the gap between market leaders and followers seems to have widened and business dynamism seems to have declined.

Against this background, a consortium comprising Lear, E.CA Economics, Fideres, Prometeia, the University of East Anglia and Verian, and led by Lear, has been appointed by the Directorate-General for Competition of the European Commission to provide factual evidence on four aspects of the state of competition in the EU:

• the relationship between price and market concentration in key sectors of economic activity;
• an analysis of the evolution of ‘Global Superstars’, i.e. the most profitable of the world’s largest firms;
• the interplay between competition in domestic markets within the EU and export competitiveness;
• the role that effective competition plays in determining investment, employment, productivity and GDP

The session will provide an overview of the main findings of the report.