Book Description:
Concerns about European prospects for competitiveness, jobs and growth are high on the European Union agenda and regulatory reform, both at national and EU levels, is widely recognized as a crucial tool for improving the performance of European companies. Despite the single market, selective sectoral regulatory reform and certain reforms at the national level, regulation in Europe still tends to discourage new entrants, impede new production methods and inhibit the exit of existing competitors. It often increases costs without providing compensatory benefits, reduces operational flexibility and distorts capital expenditure, creating obstacles to innovation. The authors in this book argue that regulatory reform can, more often than not, help improve the competitiveness of companies while generating net growth effects for the European Union as a whole. In this book, the first of two volumes, the authors discuss the horizontal issues involved in regulatory reform. Following an extended introduction by the editors, two general chapters address regulation and growth, and the regulatory burdens and failures in Europe. Other chapters deal with national competition policy, state aids, EU environmental policy, reforms in product markets, labor market reforms, the regulatory environment of small and new firms, and the current, insufficient, EU reforms to improve regulatory quality. Throughout the book the authors aim to show how the market can function more efficiently and offers policy recommendations to show how regulatory reform can improve competitiveness at the firm level as well as performance at the industry, national and EU levels.
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