Assessing the impact of competition authorities’ activities

Many competition authorities conduct impact assessments to quantify the expected consumer benefits of their interventions. This paper discusses the current practice of competition authorities with regards to impact assessments and considers how the 2014 'OECD Guide for helping authorities assess the expected impact of their activities' could be updated. The guide remains a practical and widely referenced document, but there is an opportunity for revisions which would help ensure it remains relevant and credible. This paper shows that impact assessments are used by many OECD competition authorities and are a valuable tool to help communicate the benefits of competition interventions, maintain accountability with stakeholders and inform priority setting.