John Fingleton

 

John Fingleton became Chief Executive of the OFT in October 2005.

John studied economics at Trinity College, Dublin, and Nuffield College, Oxford. He taught economics at Trinity College, Dublin, for almost a decade, and spent shorter periods at the London School of Economics, the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago, and the Université Libre de Bruxelles. His academic research focused on industrial organisation, regulation and competition policy.

As Chairperson of the Irish Competition Authority from 2000 to 2005, John oversaw the introduction of new legislation, initiated criminal and civil enforcement, set up a new mergers regime and engaged in widespread competition advocacy, especially in the areas of transport, the professions and financial services. He played an active role in international competition policy and in domestic economic policy, particularly around competitiveness.

At the OFT, John has focused on increasing the impact that the OFT has on consumers and productivity growth in the UK economy. The OFT has thus refocused its work on a smaller number of high profile matters, examples of which include criminal and civil enforcement, cartels, airports and banking charges.

• 1983-87   Trinity College Dublin Scholar 1985; BA (Mod) in Economics 1987
• 1987-91   Nuffield College Oxford, M. Phil. in Economics 1989,
  D. Phil. Middlemen 1991
• 1991   London School of Economics, Research Officer at Financial Markets Group, January to September
• 1991-2000   Trinity College Dublin, Lecturer in Economics
  European Centre for Advanced Research in Economics,
  Université Libre de Bruxelles, July to December 1995
  Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago, visiting scholar, September 1998 to April 2000
• 2000-2005  Chairperson, Irish Competition Authority
• 2005-   Chief Executive, Office of Fair Trading

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Publications

Books and chapters in books

• The Internationalisation of Capital Markets and the Regulatory Response, [Editor], Graham and Trotman, 1992.
• 'Competition and Efficiency in the Services Sector,' Chapter 10 in The Economy of Ireland: Policy and Performance of a Small European Country, J.W. O'Hagan (ed.), 8th edition, Gill & MacMillan, 1995.
• 'Margins and Risk Premia in Bookmaking,' [with P. Waldron], Chapter 7 in The Empirical Analysis of Industrial Organisation, CEPR, D. Neven and L-H. Röller (eds.), 1995.
• Competition Policy and the Transformation of Central Europe [with E. Fox, D. Neven and P. Seabright], CEPR, 1996.
• The Dublin Taxi Market: Re-regulate or Stay Queuing?, [with J. Evans and O. Hogan], Studies in Public Policy, 3, The Policy Institute, 1998.
• 'Regulation and Competition' [with O. Hogan] in The Economy of Ireland: Policy and Performance of a Small European Economy, Gill & MacMillan, J.W. O'Hagan (ed.), 7th edition, 2000.
• 'Competition Policy and Competitiveness: The Perspective from a small open EU Member State,' Chapter 3 in Competition and Competitiveness in a New Economy, H. Handler and C. Burger (eds.), July 2002.

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Articles

• 'Competition Policy and Employment: An Application to Ireland,' Economic and Social Review, Vol. 25, No. 1, pp. 57-76, October 1993.
• 'Economic Theory, Competition Policy and the Irish Economy,' Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland, Vol. XXVII, Part 1, pp. 153-164, 1996.
• 'Standards of Competition in the Irish Economy,' Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland, Vol. XXVII, Part IV, pp. 87-128, 1996/7.
• 'Competition between Intermediated and Direct Trade: Why Disintermediation Occurs Later than is Optimal,' Oxford Economic Papers, 49, No. 4, 543-56, 1997.
• 'Competition among Middlemen when Buyers and Sellers can Trade Directly' Journal of Industrial Economics, Vol. XLV, No. 4, 405-27, 1997.
• 'How to Apply Antitrust Market Definition Rules to State Aids: A Proposal,' Selected Issues of State Aid Control, European Competition Law Annual 1999, 2001.
• 'Market Power and its Controversies,' (in translation as 'Il potere di mercato. Come definirlo?') in Mercato, Concorrena, Regole, Vol 1, No. 3, pp. 339-84, 1999.
• 'Market Definition and State Aid Control,' [with F. Ruane and V. Ryan] European Economy, No. 3, pp. 65-88, 1999.
• 'Political economy insights from competition policy in Ireland,' Fordham Antitrust Conference 2001, pp. 569-95.
• 'The Distribution and Attribution of Cases Among the Members of the Network: The Perspective of the Commission/NCAs,' European Competition Law Annual 2002, pp. 325-40.
• 'Does Collective Dominance Provide Suitable Housing for all anti-competitive oligopolistic mergers?,' Fordham Antitrust Conference 2002, pp. 181-99.
• De-monopolising Ireland (pdf 155 kb), European Competition Law Annual 2003, (forthcoming).
• Mind the gap: Reforming the EU Merger Regulation [with D. Nolan], (in translation as 'Mind the Gap.  La riforma del regolamento comunitario sulle concentrazioni'), Mercato Concorenze Regole, No. 2, pp. 297-308, 2003.
• Competing Interests, Global Agenda, 2005.
• 'Career Concerns of Bargainers,' [with M. Raith] Journal of Law, Economics and Organisation, Vol. 21, pp. 179-204, 2005.

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Speeches and lectures

(not otherwise published above)

Speeches can be downloaded as pdf files.

• The Challenges of Competition Advocacy (178 kb), speech to International Bar Association, June 2003.
• The Effectiveness of the Irish Competition Law Regime: 'Balancing Enforcement and Advocacy (313 kb), speech to Competition Press Conference, September 2003.
• Competition Brings Benefits and Challenges (84 kb), speech to Dublin Economic Workshop, October 2003.
• Putting Competition at the Heart of Enterprise Policy (177 kb), opening address at European Competition Day, April 2004.
• Effective Cartel Regulation in Ireland (113 kb), presentation to International Competition Network, April 2004.
• Competition and the Insurance Sector (208 kb), address to Insurance Institute of Ireland Annual Conference, Sept 2004.
• Is the Competition Act 2002 the last word? (302 kb), speech to Competition Press Conference, September 2004.
• The Role of Economics in Merger Review (369 kb), Beesley Lecture, 2004
• Are we over-regulated? (125 kb), speech to Irish Management Institute Annual Conference, April 2004.

In addition to the above written texts, a large number of presentations on a variety of sectors and competition policy issues is available from the Irish Competition Authority website.

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Professional involvements

• European Association for Research in Industrial Economics, Member of the Programme Committee (2000).
• Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Member of the Policy Board (2000-).
• National Competitiveness Council, Council Member (2003-).
• International Competition Network, Vice Chair of Steering Committee (2003-).
• Association of Competition Economics, Chair of Steering Committee (2003-).
• Journal of Competition Law and Economics, Member of the Advisory Board (2004-).
• Competition Law Forum, Consultative Member (2005-).
• European Competition Journal, Member of the Advisory Board, (2005-).
• Competition Policy International, Member of the Editorial Board, (2005-).

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