Monday 13th
– 08:15-09:45 (10:15-11:45 CEST) | Online and at Harpa, Reykjavik | REGISTER
Inflation is rising
sharply in many economies around the world and has led to what is termed
“Cost-of-Living Crisis”. Competition
has proven to be beneficial as it generally leads to a stronger economy, lower
prices, more choices, and better quality of products or services. But has
competition and competition law enforcement a role when dealing with or
lessening the harm of inflationary shocks? The Biden Adminstration certainly
thinks so and has embraced competition policy as a tool to combat soaring
inflation.
Pierre
Régibeau, Chief Competition Economist at European Commission Director-General for
Competition (DG COMP), will address how competition and competition policy can
curb increasing inflation and the cost-of-living crisis at this spring morning
conference hosted by the Icelandic Competition Authority.
The panel
will then discuss this topic and address a related issue of how competition can
benefit employees in labour markets.
Experts in
the field will be involved in the conference and the ICA is pleased to announce
the following panel members:
Attendees
can take part either in person at Harpa and enjoy a cup of coffee or online
through Zoom (link will
follow registration).
Please register for the event here.
Agenda:
Ana
Sofia Rodrigues Chief
Economist and Head of the Bureau of Economic Studies and Market Monitoring of
the Portuguese Autoridade da Concorrência (AdC) since October 2015, after a
year as Senior Competition Expert at the OECD. Before that, she held various
positions at AdC. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of York
(2008).
Ásgeir
Jónsson has been
the governor of the Central Bank of Iceland since 2019. He received M.Sc.
degree in economics from Indiana University in 1997 and Ph. D. degree
from the same university in 2001. Before taking on the role at the Central Bank
of Iceland Ásgeir was the president of the Economics Department at the
University of Iceland.
Lilja
Alfreðsdóttir has
been a member of the cabinet since 2016 and the Minister of Culture and
Business Affairs since November 2021. Prior to her political career Lilja held
various positions for the Central Bank of Iceland and the International
Monetary Fund in Washington D.C. Lilja holds an M.A. in economics from Columbia
University in New York.
Martin
Gaynor is the E.J.
Barone University Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon
University and former Director of the Bureau of Economics at the U.S. Federal
Trade Commission. Professor Gaynor’s research focuses on competition and
incentives in health care, and on antitrust policy. Mr. Gaynor received Ph.D.
degree from Northwestern University in 1983.
Páll
Gunnar Pálsson has
been Director General of the Icelandic Competition since 2005. Previously he
held positions in public administration, in the fields of industry, commerce,
energy, and financial supervision. He is a lawyer by education.
Pierre
Régibeau is the
Chief Competition Economist at DG Competition. He specializes in the field of
Industrial Organisation, law and economics and international business. Dr
Régibeau holds a PhD in Economics from the University of California at
Berkeley. Since 1987 he has held teaching positions at MIT, Northwestern University,
the University of Barcelona, and the University of Essex, where he is currently
a visiting honorary professor.
Sveinn
Agnarsson is
Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Icelandic Competition Authority. He
is a full professor in economics at the Faculty of Business Administration at
the University of Iceland. Sveinn holds an undergraduate degree in history from
the University of Iceland and a PhD in economics from the University of
Gothenburg. His research has mainly focused on various aspects of fisheries
management and research utilisation, as well as applied microeconomics.
Valur
Þráinsson has
served as the Chief Economist at the Icelandic Competition Authority since
2019. He holds a B. Sc. in Economics from the University of Iceland, an M. Sc.
degree in Economics from the University of Amsterdam with a special focus on
IO, regulation and competition policy and a PG Diploma in EU Competition Law
from King’s College London.
For the
last few months inflation has been rising in many economies around the world. Consumer prices in the OECD area rose by 8.8% year-on-year in March
2022, 7.8% in February 2022 in comparison to 2.4% in March 2021. The price hike
in March, was its sharpest since October 1988. Around one fifth of OECD
countries have recorded double-digit inflation, with the highest rate in Turkey
at 61.1% Nevertheless, it seems that inflation has not reached its peak. The
Bank of England released updated forecasts in the beginning of May 2022 that
inflation will top 10% later this year, the Icelandic Central Bank finds the
outlook is for inflation to rise above 8% in Q3/2022 and similar developments can be seen around the world.
These developments
have also been referred to as a „cost of living crisis“, since high
inflation, while wages do not follow prices, leads to a fall in real disposable
income, which can have a severe effect on consumers.
Competition
enforcement is not usually considered a tool that is suited to address short-term
monetary or macro-economic issues. However, it is widely recognised that robust competition in markets
is one of the most important prerequisites for a strong and stable economy. In
line with this, oligopolistic markets and lack of competition can adversely
affect the economy as a whole.
In this
respect, the Biden administration has emphasised that competition policy should
be used to combat soaring inflation, demanding authorities to strengthen its
competition policy, especially in areas of the economy where there has been
less competition and more consolidation.
Furthermore,
it is widely recognised that competition can benefit employees. National
competition authorities in Europe, the European Commission and US antitrust
authorities have intervened in markets where anti-competitive mergers or
agreements would have harmed workers.
These
facts show that there is a need for an open discussion about how competition
and competition policy can be of use to curb soaring inflation and/or fall in
real disposable income.
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