Wettbewerbsaufsicht in der EU : Zentralisierung oder Dezentralisierung?

The paper analyses the economic consequences of the recent shift of the EU-Commission from a centralized to a decentralized cartel control. lt takes the economic theory of fiscal federalism as a starting point for an evaluation of this shift in strategies. The analysis shows that due to economies of scale in integrating EU competition laws and a potential abuse of competition rules for industrial policy purposes on the national level that would lead to negative external effects for other member countries, the old centralized system of cartel control is advantageous compared to the new decentralized system. (Die Weltwirtschaft / SWP)