Competition Policy's Social Paradox: Are We Losing Sight of the Wood for the Trees?

Chirita, Anca Daniela

Abstract

The present contribution seeks to provide a normative justification for the better consideration of employment and its negative social consequences in the area of mergers. First, it challenges the widespread rhetoric of competition policy when advancing economic efficiency as a goal of competition policy. Second, it argues that the promotion of efficiency-driven, fierce competition comes at the expense of other sensible social values, such as job creation. As evidenced by statistics, this contribution unravels how job cuts follow from mergers and acquisitions. It argues (i) in favour of an overhaul of the efficiency defence with the aim of focusing more actively on job creation, or at least on balancing the number of job cuts with the number of newly created jobs and (ii) against anti-competitive practices such as social dumping and camouflage.

Citation

Chirita, A. D. (2018). Competition Policy's Social Paradox: Are We Losing Sight of the Wood for the Trees?. European Competition Journal, 14(2-3), 367-416. https://doi.org/10.1080/17441056.2018.1533366

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 4, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Oct 10, 2018
• Publication Date: Oct 10, 2018
• Deposit Date: Sep 25, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 10, 2020
• Journal: European Competition Journal
• Print ISSN: 1744-1056
• Electronic ISSN: 1757-8396
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 14
• Issue: 2-3
• Pages: 367-416
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17441056.2018.1533366
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1313409
• Related Public URLs: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3253029