Roundtable on Bringing Competition Into Regulated Sectors — Session I

This paper summarises the set of policies which governments might pursue in order to promote competition in those sectors which are or were subject to government regulation. In other words, the subject matter of this paper is “competition policy” in the broadest sense (as opposed to competition law), and its application to regulated industries. It is intended that this paper will act as a framework for thinking about competition policy, and/or a guide for developing competition-oriented reforms. Given the enormous breadth of the field of competition policy, this paper inevitably only touches on many key ideas and policies. The OECD has published many documents which discuss in more detail many of the issues which are raised here.