Sector-specific regulation: transitory or ad infinitum?An international look at regulation institutions

Already at the beginning of the European liberalisation process, the Ifo Institute examined the organisation of regulation authorities. The present contribution continues this work with an international comparison of regulation institutions. Using the example of the telecommunications industry, the effects of changed market and competition conditions on the institutional structures of these authorities are analysed. In particular the question is examined as to whether the strong competition and innovation dynamics of the telecommunications sector is matched by institutional adjustments of the national regulation authorities, which ultimately should lead to market supervision by institutions of general competition law. The results are that in none of the eleven countries included in the study - despite the increasingly strong competition on the telecommunications markets - has the regulating task been transferred to institutions of general competition law, and this in the tenth year of the complete liberalisation of telecommunications markets.