What’s Gender Got to Do with Competition Policy?

By Chris Pike (OECD)

Competition policy usually thinks in terms of consumers and firms, government and regulators. Traditionally, consumers have been considered only by their willingness to pay, their preferences, their ability to substitute between products offered by firms. Firms are treated as units that are defined by the profit-maximising objectives of their shareholders, and only rarely seen as collections of people. Perhaps this accounts for there being little or no literature on the topic of gender equality and competition. Therefore, consider this article as a set of questions, a potential research agenda, that might at least help us to start thinking about whether there are problems and where they might lie.

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