Discretion in European merger control: The German regime in context
- 1 March 1995
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of European Public Policy
- Vol. 2 (1) , 41-67
- https://doi.org/10.1080/13501769508406974
Abstract
Merger control is used in this article to illustrate the exercise of discretion in economic regulation. It suggests that discretion is unavoidable and examines the various modes of discretion exercised by institutions such as the Bundeskartellamt and Directorate‐General IV of the European Union. It argues that institutions should be structured to deploy discretion productively and to modify both legal and economic modes of analysis. Four elements in the article can be stressed. First, it provides an analysis of the important and under‐emphasized area of German merger control; secondly, it offers a comparative critique of the operation of German policy; thirdly, it suggests that an impoverished European theory of regulation could benefit from a transfusion of American concepts and, fourthly, it provides a sceptical perspective on current proposals for reform of EC competition policy institutions.Keywords
This publication has 10 references indexed in Scilit:
- Paradoxes of privatization and deregulationJournal of European Public Policy, 1994
- Recent Patterns of European Merger ActivityPublished by Oxford University Press (OUP) ,1993
- European Capital Markets and Corporate ControlPublished by Oxford University Press (OUP) ,1993
- The politics of discretion: toward a critical theory of public administrationCanadian Public Administration/Administration publique du Canada, 1993
- Bureaucratic Professionalization and the Limits of the Political Control Thesis: The Case of the Federal Trade CommissionGovernance, 1993
- EEC Merger Control – A Half-Term Report Before the 1993 Review?World Competition, 1993
- CULTURAL ISSUES AND THE SINGLE EUROPEAN MARKET: BARRIERS TO TRADE AND SHIFTING ATTITUDESThe Political Quarterly, 1993
- Responsive RegulationPublished by Oxford University Press (OUP) ,1992
- Regulating Big BusinessPublished by Cambridge University Press (CUP) ,1992
- The Political Economy of Germany in the Twentieth CenturyPublished by University of California Press ,1980