Evaluation of the Actions and Resources of the Competition Authorities

In an increasing number of jurisdictions, public bodies are initiating projects to evaluate the effects of competition policy programs or to analyse the efficiency of competition agency organisation and procedures. Evaluation should be a routine ingredient of the competition agency’s annual agenda and should be incorporated into the formulation of budgets and operational plans. Over the past decade competition agencies have responded to their own awareness of the importance of ex post evaluation and external demands for performance measurement by devoting increasing attention to analysing the effectiveness of existing institutional arrangements and initiatives. Useful insights can be derived from a variety of evaluation methods, using resources within and external to the competition authority. One of the most fruitful areas of evaluation to date has been the field of merger control. Evaluations of existing institutional arrangements, including organisation, management methods and operational procedures, have proven useful in identifying areas for improvement and motivating adjustments. The organisation assessment and development framework shows promise as a means for competition authorities to improve the quality of their institutional arrangements. Considerable work remains to be done to refine the methodologies used to evaluate the effectiveness of completed competition policy. This document comprises proceedings in the original languages of a Roundtable on the Evaluation of the Actions and Resources of Competition Authorities which was held by the Competition Committee in June 2005.