Competition policy and regulation of firms

Extract F (lines 5–6) states: ‘if regulators impose fines, these costs may be passed on to consumers or reduce investment’. Using the data in the extracts and your knowledge of economics, assess the view that stronger regulation would be a better policy than bringing the water industry back into public ownership.

Assess the view that privatised industries, such as electricity and gas, should be taken back into public ownership.

Assess the view that competition policy is likely to lead to markets becoming less efficient in the long run.

Discuss the view that privatisation is always beneficial because it leads to improvements in efficiency.

Regulatory capture describes a situation in which

Extract B (lines 16–18) states that, ‘Gig economy defenders claim that today’s flexible labour markets offer modern workers the opportunity to move freely between jobs and this gives them more choice over their working hours.’

Assess the view that government intervention in the UK labour market is necessary to protect the interests of people who are working in the gig economy.

Discuss whether governments should consider increasing the regulation and taxation of technology firms which have acquired significant global monopoly power.

Use the extracts and your knowledge of economics to evaluate the case for renationalising railways in the UK.

Extract B (lines 4–6) states that ‘banks do not feel enough pressure to compete on price or quality, leading some to call for the Big Four to be split into a number of smaller banks.’

Use the extracts and your knowledge of economics to assess the view that the government should intervene further in the banking sector to promote greater competition.

Extract C (line 2) states that ‘Many competitors are using digital technology to drive innovation’.

Use the extracts and your knowledge of economics to assess whether the benefits outweigh the costs when the Government privatises organisations such as Royal Mail and opens up the market to competition.

Evaluate the view that government regulation of monopolistically competitive markets is unnecessary, and that polices to encourage competition and prevent the abuse of monopoly power should focus entirely on oligopolies and monopolies.