Regulatory reform and competitiveness, Vol.1. Horizontal issues

Book abstract:

Concerns about European prospects for competitiveness, jobs and growth are high on the European Union agenda and regulatory reform, both at national and EU levels, is widely recognised as a crucial tool for improving the performance of European companies. Despite the single market, selective sectoral regulatory reform and certain reforms at the national level, regulation in Europe still tends to discourage new entrants, impede new production methods and inhibit the exit of existing competitors. It often increases costs without providing compensatory benefits, reduces operational flexibility and distorts capital expenditure, creating obstacles to innovation.

In this book, Volume 1 in a two-part series, the authors discuss the horizontal issues involved in regulatory reform. Following an extended introduction by the editors, two general chapters address regulation and growth, and the regulatory burdens and failures in Europe. Other chapters deal with national competition policy, state aid, EU environmental policy, reforms in product markets, labour market reforms, the regulatory environment of small and new firms, and the current, insufficient EU reforms to improve regulatory quality. Volume 2 discusses vertical issues.

Throughout the book the authors aim to demonstrate how the market can function more efficiently and offer policy recommendations to show how regulatory reform can improve competitiveness at the firm level as well as performance at the industry, national and EU levels.

Chapters are Introduction: aims, structure and overview; Growth and regulation; Regulation in Europe: justified burden or costly failure; National competition policies; State aid in context; Environmental policy reform in the EU; Reforming product regulation in the EU: a painstaking, iterative two-level game; The economic impact of product liability: lessons from the US and the EU experience; Regulation and labour market performance; Deregulation and labour market reforms: the role of the social partners; Market structure dynamics and economic growth; Better EU regulatory quality: assessing current initiatives and new proposals

Giampaolo Galli is Director of Centro Studi Confindustria (CSC), the research department of the Confederation of Italian Industry in Rome. Jacques Pelkmans is Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels and Professor of European Economic Integration at Maastricht University.