The second day of the international conference “Institution Building of the National Competition Authorities in South-East Europe”, organized by the Commission for Protection of Competition of the Republic of Serbia in cooperation with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and with the technical support of the Center for Liberal-Democratic Studies (CLDS), was dedicated to the role of economics in the implementation of competition policy. An important role in this, as well as many other matters related to the implementation of competition policy, is played by a high quality economic analysis.

During the conference, four panels were held which presented the experiences and economic tools in the process of market analysis, the determination of competition infringements and control of concentrations.

Notable presentations were given by Russell Pittman from the US Department of Justice, who presented the three most widely used economic instruments in the analysis of competition infringements, and Gregor Langus from the European Commission, who spoke about why economic analyses are the main tool in the effective policy of competition protection. Jelena Grahovac from the Economic Analyses Division of the Commission for Protection of Competition of the Republic of Serbia presented the experience of the Commission employees following the first economic and econometric trainings. The head of the Economic Analyses Division, Siniša Milošević, PhD, gave a speech on the “Analysis of price movement as a tool in defining the relevant market”, while Dajana Muženič-Abramovich from the Slovenian Competition Protection Agency spoke about the quantitative economic tests for defining the relevant market. Radu Paun from the Competition Council of Romania acquainted the participants of the conference with the economic instruments applied by this body in the context of measuring competitive pressure in the selected sectors of the economy. Gazmir Mani from the Albanian authority presented a case of abuse of dominant position in the mobile telephony market. Kim O’Sullivan from the EBRD provided a view of the role of economics in law and policy of competition protection as a way to improve the investment climate in the region.

In addition to the aforemntioned economic tools, competition authorities often use instruments for monitoring the market (such as sectoral analysis, studies, reports, research, etc.) with the aim of identifying possible weaknesses in the market and/ or the existence of conditions of competition infringements.