POLITICAL ANALYSES OF EUROPEAN COMPETITION POLICY

This article reviews the political-scientific literature on European competition policy (ECP) in the 2000s. Based on four journals and an upfront methodology, it analyses the literature both quantitatively and qualitatively. It shows that although a few sub-policy areas are still neglected, ECP is not the under-researched policy it used to be. Further, the literature has greatly improved since the 1990s: almost all articles now present a clear research question, and most advance specific theoretical claims/hypotheses. Yet, additional improvements can be made on research methods and, above all, theorizing (e.g., in the game-theoretical treatment of delegation problems, or social choice-theoretical treatments of the Commission). Indeed, it is paradoxical that ECP specialists do not pay more attention to theoretical questions which are so central to the actual policy area they study.