Competition Economics: Is It Broken?
Competition Economics: Is It Broken?
Recent studies here, in the United States and globally indicate that market concentration and firm markups are up, consistent with competition being down. While the blame is widespread, it is in part being laid at the feet of competition economics. The “hipster antitrusters” advocate a shift to focus on market structure and concentration over consumer effects-based analysis, and broader public interest objectives such as fairness and equality. Are we at risk of throwing the economics baby out with the hipster bathwater? There are probably legitimate criticisms that competition authorities haven’t done enough, but it’s a big leap from that to concluding that we’re not using the right tools and we have the wrong objectives.
About the Speaker
Dr Lilla Csorgo was appointed as Chief Economist of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) in May 2023. She has 30 years’ experience in competition economics and has been Chief Economist at the Competition Bureau of Canada, the New Zealand Commerce Commission, and the Hong Kong Competition Commission. She has also spent several years in private practice at consulting firm Charles River Associates and was a lay member of the Canadian Competition Tribunal. She is currently a lay member of the High Court of New Zealand. Dr Csorgo has a PhD in Economics from the University of Toronto.
