Conclusions

There is no question that competition policy is on the agenda of policymakers and academics these days. From the viewpoint of policymakers, competition policy has established itself in most industrialised countries as an integral part of public policy that contributes substantially to the improvement of the wealth of nations. The ongoing reforms of European competition policy, however, together with the discussions on further harmonisation needs of antitrust rules around the world indicate that the process of designing and implementing an efficient antitrust policy has not reached an (even short-term) equilibrium yet. From the viewpoint of academics, the current challenges of competition policy provide plenty of opportunities to apply theoretical and empirical techniques when advising policymakers on an economically sound design and implementation of antitrust rules. The still-increasing supply and demand with respect to such questions is reflected, for instance, in the recent launch of three academic journals devoted to competition and competition policy. Somehow incorporating the viewpoints of both, policymakers and academics, the exponential increase in the revenues of economic consultancies specialised in competition since the early 1990s in Europe (see Neven, 2005) indicate the rising need for competition economists who are able to translate economic reasoning and insights to policymakers and lawyers in the field in order to ameliorate the design, the implementation and the execution of competition law provisions.