Prof Willem Boshoff's inaugural lecture: Competition policy in South Africa

​Prof Willem Boshoff, Co-Director of the Centre for Competition Law and Economics in the Department of Economics at Stellenbosch University, recently delivered his inaugural lecture titled “Not at the races: Competition and competition policy in South Africa".

As one of the foremost experts in industrial organization and competition policy, and having been involved as consultant in numerous cases before the competition authorities, Prof Boshoff is a unique position to give an up-to-date, practical and thoughtful perspective. In the inaugural lecture, he argued a number of simple but far-reaching points, firstly that competition is critical to economic growth, but also that competition is not something that can easily be measured by simple proxies such as firm size (which itself is difficult to guage) and associated concentration levels. Instead, what really matters is whether consumers have effective alternative options to choose from, thus indicating that a thorough understanding of the relevant market in which a firm operates is vital to understanding effective competition in each market. Another important point is that effecive competition, thus measured, is very often reduced in markets characterised by government intervention (or outright monopolization). Appropriately focused competition policy is therefore key to supporting an acceleration in investment and growth in the country.

Prof Boshoff has been a lecturer in the Department since 2006. A short interview in connection with the inaugural lecture has been published on the University's news blog.