Lainsäädännön kilpailuvaikutusten arviointi

Series title and number of the publication
Aleksanterinkatu 4 P.O. Box 32 Tel. +358 9 16001
MTI Financed studies
FIN-00170 Helsinki
FINLAND
FIN-00023 GOVERNMENT
Helsinki FINLAND
Telefax +358 9 1606 3666
5/2006
Authors
Tom Björkroth & Aki Koponen / Turku School of
Economics and Business Administration;
Business Research and Development Centre
Date
October 2006
Commissioned by
Ministry of Trade and Industry
Date of appointment
Title
A competition impact analysis of legislative proposals
Abstract
The Nordic Countries have succeeded in creating a relatively good and stable business environment.
However, the OECD has criticized Finland for insufficient use of impact assessment in preparations of
legislative proposals. For instance, the development of consistent and flexible methods of analysis and
integration of impact assessment to policy processes require special attention.
This report reviews the competition impact analyses of legislative proposals, the role of impact analysis
and also the timing of the analysis in the legislative work. By combining the recent results from competition
research, international experiences and examples of impact assessment, this report provides an alternative
approach to rise to this challenge.
On the whole, simultaneously with the purpose of easy-access and ease of use, we have tried to ascertain
that the methodology is closely linked to the main themes and principles of economics and especially
competition research. Success in this endeavor yields a methodology which will ensure time-sparing and
simple impact analysis of sufficiently good quality. The approach utilizes the current practices and experiences
of impact assessments, but it has also introduced the role of firm-specific competitive advantages in
the analysis, especially in the directions of interpretation.
In this approach, impact assessment is structured by seven questions. The approach enables conditional
argumentation and the analyst is also able to lay more stress on certain questions in the final assessment -
the key point is the well documented analysis. In this way we can avoid the problems related to simple
“rules of thumb”. That is, since simple decision-making rules can ignore even some extremely substantial
impacts on competition, careful analysis and argumentation yields more diverse and wider view on the
real competitive impacts of a legislative proposal.
MTI contacts: Trade Department/Ulla Karhu, tel. +358 (9) 1606 3547
Key words
Competition, impact assessment, legislation, competition analysis
ISSN
1459-9384
Pages
127
Published by
Ministry of Trade and Industry
Language
Finnish
ISBN
952-489-024-0
Price
20 €
Sold by
Edita Publishing Ltd