FRAMEWORK FOR
COMPETITION REFORMS (FCR)
Rijit Sengupta
CREW NRG-II Meeting
2nd July 2014, New Delhi
OUTLINE
• Background
(Competition Reforms)
• What is FCR?
• Components of FCR
• FCR & CREW Findings
(Photo: Neha Tomar)
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Background
“If countries eliminated policies and practices that distort
competition, they could grow rapidly”, Power of Productivity,
William W Lewis (2004)
- Many DCs/LDCs have adopted competition laws in last decade
- However implementation remains limited
- Policies affect competition, markets remain concentrated and
anti-competitive practices prevail
- Benefits of competition don’t accrue to consumers, producers
- Low level of understanding and attention of key stakeholders
- Benefits of introducing competition reforms needs to be
demonstrated
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Components of Competition Reforms
‘Competition Reforms’ encompass:
(i) Enabling government policies
(ii) Well-designed regulatory framework, empowered
institution
(iii) Functional competition regime (policy/law/agency)
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Framework for Competition Reforms (FCR)
• A guide to plan, execute, evaluate & rectify competition
reforms in DCs
PLAN
RECTIFY
EXECUTE
EVALUATE
(Re: Shewart Cycle that is used in business management as
a tool for continuous improvement of products/processes)
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FCR (contd.)
• Developed for a specific market
• To help key stakeholders appreciate benefits of competition
reforms on consumers and/or producers
• Lead to greater attention to the issue - as part of economic
planning and reforms in DCs
• Incorporate experience/research findings under CREW
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FCR Preparatory Work
• Need a competition
champion to lead
• Formation of a small but
decisive team (CRFT)
• Identify need for competition
reforms
• Identify the sector/market to
be reformed
• Assess ‘state of the art’
(review of sector, concerns
for consumers/producers)
(Photo: Shreya Kaushik)
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Steps of FCR
• Planning
• Executing
• Evaluating
• Rectifying
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FCR Step 1:
Planning
• Identify relevant reforms (policies, legislations, statues,
programmes) in the selected market
• Understand implications of these reforms on market
composition
• Highlight reform intentions (consumers and/or producers
welfare)
• Select indicators of consumer and producer welfare
• Prepare a methodology and analytical plan (data collection
and analysis)
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FCR Step 2:
Executing
• From the set of selected reforms narrow down to those
having pro-competitive or anti-competitive market outcomes
• Gather relevant secondary literature/information and primary
data on indicators of consumer & producer welfare
• Interpret current levels of consumer and producer welfare
resulting from these reforms (qualitative + quantitative)
• Highlight prevailing concerns vis-à-vis selected reforms
(qualitative + quantitative)
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FCR Step 3:
Evaluating
• Link consumer and producer welfare or concerns with market
composition resulting from reforms
Reform
Market
Composition
Consumer/
Producer
Impact
• Record suggestions from consumers, producers, key
stakeholders for amendments
• Identify political economy issues in sectors
• Generate a body of evidence
• Start engaging with CRFT members with results
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FCR Step 4:
Rectifying
• Review and discuss results (consumer & producer impacts)
• Plan a process for initiating corrective measures
• Develop a M&E framework to assess and report consumer
and producer impacts after ‘corrective measures’ are taken
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Developing FCR based on CREW findings
•
•
•
•
Development of outline of FCR
Draft sectoral FCR (based on CREW experience)
Incorporation of stakeholders’ views to make adjustments
Draft FCR (each sector) shared with NRG members in NRG-III
and subsequent finalisation
• Used to elicit interest among government/stakeholders for
FCR in other sectors/countries
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Thank You
www.cuts-ccier.org/CREW
rsg@cuts.org
(Photo: Rijit Sengupta)
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