Which Role for State Aid and Merger Control During and After the COVID Crisis?

Chiara Fumagalli, Massimo Motta () and Martin Peitz

CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series from University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany

Abstract: In response to the severe economic crisis triggered by Covid-19, state aid and a relaxation of competition rules, including merger control, have been proposed as policyoptions. We argue that there is a clear role for state aid in sectors experiencing a temporary shock, whereas state aid in sectors affected by a permanent long-term shock is more problematic. We also argue that merger control should not be relaxed and that in particular any merger proposal invoking the failing firm defence requires close scrutiny.

Keywords: competition policy; state aid; merger control; Covid-19; failing firm defence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H25 K21 L52 L53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 14
Date: 2020-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-com and nep-law
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.crctr224.de/research/discussion-papers/archive/dp184 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2020_184

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series from University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany Kaiserstr. 1, 53113 Bonn , Germany.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CRC Office ().