The Efficiency of Regulation in the European Union

This dissertation deals with the topic of economic regulation, focusing on applying empirical methods to assess the efficiency of regulatory measures used in different areas of the EU economy. It consists of three parts, the first part looks at the functioning of the EU merger control, the second and third focus on the relationship between regulation, competition and investment in telecommunications markets. The first chapter deals with the EU competition policy and the specific area of merger control, analysing empirically the impact of introducing more economic approach in evaluating competition effects of mergers at the EU level. Our key finding is that the regulatory reform introduced in 2004 has, to some extent, enhanced the efficiency of European merger control. This implies that the Commission's assessments of mergers under the new regulation post the 2004 reform are more consistent with the independent market evaluations. We find that the probability of an anti-competitive deal being cleared decreases significantly under the new regulatory framework. Nevertheless, the occurrence of unnecessary remedies imposed on pro-competitive mergers has not decreased as the result of the new merger control. Overall, our results indicate that more economic approach applied post 2004 reform increased the..