Monitoring of Markets and Sectors Final Report

Publication date: 2011-01-01

Author:

Eyckmans, Johan
Kelchtermans, Stijn ; Vanormelingen, Stijn ; Coucke, Kristien ; Sels, Annabel ; Cheung, Cherry ; Neicu, Daniel ; Schaumans, Catherine ; Verboven, Frank

Abstract:

The AGORA-MMS project was set up following the creation of the division “Sector and Market Monitoring” within the Federal Public Service Economy (FPS Economy in the sequel). The assignments of this division are twofold. First of all, the sector and market monitoring unit executes the price observatory tasks within the Institute for National Accounts. Next to the former task, the monitoring unit performs sector analysis for the FPS Economy. In order to achieve its mission that consists of creating the conditions necessary for the competitive, sustainable and balanced functioning of the goods and services market, it is important to monitor the Belgian economy at sector level. One of the approaches to take on this challenge is “identify economic sectors and markets that show signals of suboptimal functioning, looking for the causes of these dysfunctions and suggesting solutions”. The EU adopted this approach within its Single market review in 2007. The term ‘market malfunctioning’ should be understood here in a very broad sense and is definitely broader than ensuring fair competition (competition policy) or monitoring price evolutions. This project contributes to this objective by proposing several methodologies that analyze sectors from different perspectives, taking into account multiple indicators that are calculated on the basis of the rich datasets the FPS Economy has access to.