Regulatory reform and competitiveness in Europe, Vol.2. Vertical 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. The authors in this book argue that regulatory reform can, more often than not, help improve the competitiveness of companies while generating net growth effects for the European Union as a whole.

In this second volume of a two-part series, the authors discuss the vertical issues involved in regulatory reform. The authors describe in detail the regulatory reforms which are needed or have been initiated in nine major industrial sectors, including automobiles, textiles and clothing, retail trade, chemicals, banking, road transport, telecoms, electricity and (scheduled) air transport. Volume 1 discusses horizontal issues.

Chapters are Introduction: aims, structure and overview; Regulatory reform for the better functioning of markets: the case of the automobile industry; Is the suspect guilty? Labour market effects of trade liberalisation in textiles; Regulations and retail trade; The chemical industry and regulation; Road transport; Deregulation and changes in the European banking industry; Regulation and competition in telecommunications; Regulatory reform in the electricity industry; Some structural issues in regulatory reform and market functioning in the European electricity supply industry; Air transport regulation in the EU.

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.