On 20 April 2016, Adriaan Dierx, from DG Competition at the European Commission, will present a paper on the effect of competition policy on inclusive growth. If the rise of market power is driving the increase in income inequality, then competition policy, which aims to prevent companies from abusing their market power, contributes to inclusive growth. However, there is only limited empirical research on the macroeconomic and distributive effects of competition policy. Policy simulations and the study of case-specific information on merger and cartel decisions show that competition policy has a sizeable, positive impact (direct and indirect) on GDP growth, job creation and the distribution of consumption across different types of households.
