The institutions of competition policy are crucial both in its development and its implementation.  They are thus an inevitable and central part of the research agenda, and research in this theme is particularly closely linked to that undertaken in other themes.  The key issues to be addressed under this theme are:

 What determines how national and EC policy and institutions have developed?  What role have networks of competition authorities played in policy development?  How has DG COMP (and its predecessor DG IV) established itself as a supranational authority?  What is the role of State Aid policy and how should it be implemented?  How do competition law and policy interact with other public policy goals?  How does private enforcement affect the role and design of public enforcement of competition law?