Competition and the Millenium Development Goals: "New" Evidence from Official Sources.

While some prefer to think of the effects of competition law and policy in terms of efficiency and resource allocation, many senior policymakers in developing countries, in aid agencies that finance technical assistance and capacity building, and in leading international organisations devoted to advancing development, see economic policies through the lens of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). These policymakers have not always been sympathetic to promoting competition and competition law and policy partly because they do not see a strong link between competition and the MDGs and other indicators of development. Using the MDG-related reports of official UN agencies, rather than the writings of experts sympathetic to promoting competition, I have documented 1092 statements relating competition, or its absence, to various development outcomes. Moreover, there are 1134 credible links between these statements and 17 of the 18 targets associated with the MDGs. The linkages between competition and three targets of the MDGs in particular, specifically those relating to poverty alleviation, reducing hunger, and making available the benefits of new technologies, account for over half of the documented linkages. Few linkages were found between competition-related factors and the MDG targets associated with education, health, and access to water and to medicines. I summarise these findings in this paper and discuss some of their implications for policymaking.