Read the OECD Background Note

  14 June and December 2023 

While there is long-standing view that competition drives innovation and that innovation, in turn, drives higher welfare and economic growth, there is no theoretical consensus on the precise relationship between these two important components of a market economy.

In June 2023, the OECD held a discussion on such relationship, to understand what we mean by innovation and what types of innovation arise from competition. Participants had the opportunity to learn about the key drivers of innovation, the role of competition policy in generating incentives to innovate or spreading innovation across industries.

As there are many other factors that drive innovation, such as the role of financing agents, geographical considerations and network effects among others, the discussion was a first opportunity to explore how these factors interact with competition and what effects they have on competitive dynamics in those markets.

A second discussion on the topic will be held next December 2023. More information will become available on this page.

See the full list of best practice roundtables on competition.

Philippe Aghion Bio 
Professor at the College de France and at the London School of Economics

Chiara Criscuolo Bio  
Head of Division Productivity Innovation and Entrepreneurship Division, Science Technology and Innovation Directorate, OECD

Wolfgang Kerber Bio  
Professor of Economic Policy, Marburg University

Álvaro Parra Bio  
Assistant Professor, UBC Sauder School of Business

Carl Shapiro Bio  
Professor, University of California, Berkeley

Eva Sørensen Bio  
Professor at Roskilde University

OECD Background Note | Note de référence de l'OCDE

Note by Wolfgang Kerber 

Contributions from participating delegations

Austria

BIAC

France EN | FR 

Kazakhstan

Merger review in emerging high innovation markets (2002)

Competition, Patents and Innovation I (2006)

Competition, Patents and Innovation II (2009)

Competition and disruptive innovation in financial markets (2015)

Disruptive innovations and competition law enforcement (2015)

Disruptive innovations and their effect on competition (2015)

Disruptive innovations in legal services (2016)

Competition and innovation in land transport (2016)

Radical Innovation in the Electricity Sector (2017)

OECD best practice roundtables on competition

More OECD work on competition