Use of Economic Evidence: Experience from APEC Members and Implications to APEC Developing Economies and Viet Nam

This paper was prepared to help guide efforts to build capacity for competition authorities in APEC developing economies (especially Viet Nam) to use economic evidence in competition cases; to share selected experiences of APEC member economies in using competition cases; to support the improvement and enforcement of regulations over competition policy in Viet Nam. While a new version of Viet Nam’s Competition Law is under drafting this paper may help to provide valuable inputs in terms of the use of economic evidence.

The paper is based on literature review and is aimed at documenting experience, good practices from advanced economies in APEC and discussions on the topics and its implication to developing economies and to Viet Nam. The main contents of the paper include: (i) summary of key experiences of APEC member economies in using economic evidence regarding market definition, merger analysis, and use of entry experience to identify barriers; (ii) discussion on the implications/preconditions for APEC developing economies to enhance their capacity of using economic evidence in competition cases; and (iii) relevant implications/issues for Viet Nam.