Today marked the completion of the J. Mirrlees Institute of Economic Policy Research (IEPR) Conference on China’s Competition Policy and Anti-Monopoly Law at Peking University in Beijing. I was thrilled to be invited to participate in the conference. A special thanks to Hongbin Cai of Peking University for the invitation, and for organizing an all around wonderful event.
The conference itself was quite an experience. I did learn quite a bit about the AML and I think now have a greater understanding of some of the challenges China will face with its implementation after listening to those who have been grappling with these problems on the ground level and in the context of the Chinese transition to a market economy. The conference was also offered a mixture of perspectives including those of economists and academics (from the US, EU, Hong Kong, and China), Chinese political officials, antitrust lawyers, and law and economics luminaries Harold Demsetz (the same one that should win the Nobel Prize Tuesday …) and Henry Manne. While there were far too many perspectives offered on the various issues and challenges facing AML enforcement to usefully summarize in a blog post, I was pleased to see widespread agreement with respect to the view that economics should play a central role in the AML’s implementation.
Most of all, I’m happy to report that TOTM was well represented at the IEPR by Geoff and I. Antitrust oriented bloggers had an even stronger presence as Luke Froeb of Management R&D (and Vanderbilt) was also a participant. Here’s a photo of Luke, Geoff and I after dinner at the Summer Palace:
