Competition as the subject of forecasts. Forming expectations of the European Commission as a supranational regulatory authority for merger control in transnational markets (1958-2003)

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Louis Pahlow
• Subject Area: Economic and Social History ; Principles of Law and Jurisprudence
• Term: from 2015 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 275757875

The project continues the previous analysis of the expectations of regulatory authorities in the field of merger control at European level. Until now, institutionalisation processes could be identified to deal with information asymmetries between regulatory authorities and business companies on the one hand, but also differences in methods and instruments for forming expectations of the respective actors by comparing state merger control systems and procedures in Germany and the USA on the other. The aim of the continuation project is to dedicate itself to how regulatory players on a supranational level forms expectations with regard to the development and evaluation of competition in transnational markets. As such, the focus is on cross-border merger proposals in Europe between 1958 and 2003 likely to involve an assessment of impacts for building the “Common” or “Single Market” of the European Commission based on the Treaty of Rome (European Economic Community, EEC) and, since 1990, under the European Regulation of Merger Control (Regulation/EEC No. 4064/89, in: OJ. L395 of 30.12.1989, p. 1-12). The aim in particular is to use knowledge already gained as reference material and investigate convergences or, as may apply, divergences of market assessments and expectations in competition between state owned and supranational (without statehood) competition policies.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 1859: Experience and Expectation: Historical Foundations of Economic Behaviour