European Business Schools Librarian's Group

IESE Research Papers,
IESE Business School

No D/846: European Commission decisions on anti-competitive behavior

Jordi Gual and Nuria Mas ()
Additional contact information
Jordi Gual: IESE Business School, Postal: Research Division, Av Pearson 21, 08034 Barcelona, SPAIN
Nuria Mas: IESE Business School, Postal: Research Division, Av Pearson 21, 08034 Barcelona, SPAIN

Abstract: This paper provides an analysis of all the European Commission's decisions on anti-trust cases between January 1999 and February 2004. We use a unique dataset that contains information not only on the cases that were analyzed by the Commission and for which a decision was finally made public, but also on all the cases that were never pursued any further and those for which there is no final public decision. We have two goals. First, this data allows us, for the first time in the literature, to determine whether there is any type of bias in the selection process followed by the Commission when deciding which cases to pursue until a final decision is reached. Our results show that the selection of cases is not random and that it is quite efficient. Second, we can help to determine whether the criteria that have been shown by the economic literature to play an important role in anti-competitive behavior are also important for the Commission's decisions in anti-trust cases. Our results suggest that this is the case.

Keywords: Anti-trust; competition; selection bias

31 pages, March 3, 2010

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