Competition Policy and the Transformation of Central Europe

This book examines the implementation of competition policy during the 1990s in Hungary, Poland, and the Czech and Slovak Republics. It looks at the economic predicament of countries in transition, considering how far this has required the state to actively police the competitive process. It assesses the extent to which initial economic and political conditions have constrained the involvement of the state in such activity. It then analyzes the statutes of the countries and the structure of the institutions established to implement competition policy. A comprehensive discussion of the case law and the experience of policy in practice is used to suggest lessons for the task of competition policy, both in these countries and in others undergoing the transition from central planning. This book will be valuable not just for those interested in competition policy but for all students of the political economy of transition.