28 February 2019  Paris  

Publicly funded services, such as social care, childcare, healthcare, skills and employment services, education, probation, housing and others, make up a large part of the economy in all OECD countries, and the quality and efficiency of the services that they provide are fundamental to a country’s ability to improve both productivity and inclusivity. 

On 28 February 2019, the OECD held a one-day workshop in Paris that drew together cross-cutting issues for those competition agencies that are advocating for pro-competitive regulatory reforms to these services, and those that are intervening in those markets. These cross-cutting issues included:

• empowering users to make meaningful choices;
• analysing the effects of mergers;
• addressing barriers to entry, exit and a level playing field; and
• incentivising effective competition. 

The workshop offered an opportunity to share experiences and lessons learned on what has worked well, and what has worked poorly. Its objective was to explore the different approaches used in the various publicly funded markets around the world to identify best practices that can support agencies, both in their advocacy and their interventions. 

PROGRAMME

Draft Agenda 

INVITED SPEAKERS

Mats BERGMAN Bio   
Professor of Economics, Södertörn University
Presenting How and when consumer choice drives efficient competition in publicly funded services

Jenny LEWIS Bio   
Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Policy Lab, University of Melbourne

Carol PROPPER Bio   
Associate Dean of Faculty and Research, Chair in Economics, Imperial College London
Presenting Incentivising competition in public services

 » View photo album here

RELATED EVENTS

Two other OECD events were held back-to-back to this event. For more information please visit:

• Workshop on Recent Challenges in Competition and IP in Pharmaceutical Markets (26 Feb.)
• OECD Competition Open Day (27 Feb.)

CONTACTS

Any questions related to the scope of the workshop should be sent to Chris Pike or Carolina Abate.

Questions regarding the logistics of the event can be sent to Paloma Bellaiche.  

RELATED MATERIALS AND LINKS 

Designing publicly funded healthcare markets, 2018

School Choice and School Vouchers: An OECD Perspective, 2017

Competition in public markets, 2017 OECD Global Forum on Competition discussion

Competition in Hospital Services, 2012 

Competition in the Provision of Hospital Services, 2005

All regulated sectors roundtables 

More OECD work on competition