Innovation and Industrial Policies

2Competition and Innovation Policy

In recent decades, most countries around the world have gradually chosen competition as the background and framework within which governments can intervene in industrial matters. This convergence is attested, at the global level, by the International Competition Network, which currently includes 336 national or regional bodies. Thus, there is almost no territory in the world today that is not directly or indirectly subject to competition rules (membership of a regional group, the WTO, or by extraterritoriality of foreign laws). These choices have in fact transformed State action by severely limiting any form of vertical intervention in order to avoid exogenous changes in production and competitive relations. This is particularly clear in the context of the European project, with the rise of European competition policy.

This movement finds its main foundations in standard economic theory and more specifically in the articulation between competition, economic growth and international trade. By caricaturing, it is possible to consider that there is a pattern, identical for each country, of promoting both internal and external competition in order to obtain the maximum possible growth. In this context, the functions of public authorities are limited to allowing and encouraging business production and competitive market relations. This is also in line with the message to troubled economies, issued in particular by the IMF and the World Bank, referred ...