Page 46 - Azerbaijan State University of Economics

THE JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SCIENCES: THEORY AND PRACTICE

guidelines must reflect conditions and practices in that country. The

agency will be held accountable for its decisions according to its own
guidelines, which become the standard by which the relevant conduct is

judged in that country. The agency can also organize conferences,
seminars, and workshops to promote understanding of the role of

competition in a market economy and to show how its enforcement

activities further such goals: how competition benefits both consumers
and businesses by ensuring the supply of goods and services at the

lowest possible price and highest possible quality; how producers in
competitive markets are forced to respond to the demands of their

customers; and how competitive markets result in the most efficient

allocation of resources, to the benefit of the entire economy.
Competition enforcement will be more effective when there is a

community whose members understand and support the concept of
competition policy. Such members could include private lawyers who

practice in the competition and regulatory arenas, academics with
expertise in business and economics, consumer organizations responsible

for protection of consumer interests, politicians interested in market-

oriented reforms, and the business community itself. The role of the
business community is ambiguous, of course. Although business people

prefer not to compete with other sellers (or with other buyers in their role
of purchasers), they nonetheless benefit from competition among their

suppliers and customers. The majority of competition cases in most
jurisdictions arise from complaints made by business people against

firms that may have foreclosed important distribution channels or

sources of inputs or have charged higher prices through collusion.
Vigorous competition in domestic markets provides domestic suppliers

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