Promoting competition, protecting human rights – Gönenç GÜRKAYNAK – ELIG – November 2016 OECD discussion

Gönenç Gürkaynak, Esq.

Attorney at Law

HUMAN RIGHTS, COMPETITION

AND CORRUPTION

OECD GLOBAL FORUM ON COMPETITION

Promoting Competition, Protecting Human

Rights

December 1, 2016

FREEDOM

OF SPEECH

INNOVATION HUMAN

RIGHTS

COMPETITION

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• A right that cannot be claimed does not exist.

• The first mandatory step in broadening the

scope of rights to maximize social welfare is

to maintain and improve freedom of

expression with a conscious choice of legal

policy.

1. The freedom of expression as the basis of

all other rights

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• As the market for ideas becomes freer, the

universe of ideas, which also incorporates

innovative ideas, will expand and

strengthen as well.

• Ideas will breed ideas and proliferate

competition of ideas. More resilient, tested

and perfected ideas will prevail, promoting

innovative thought.

2. Freedom of speech as an engine of

innovation

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• As undertakings become more efficient, they are

incentivized to compete with other players in the

market to pursue their profit seeking agenda.

• Innovation fuels competition while more competition

causes innovation to remain as a priority point.

• Innovation helps to drive economic growth and

address socio-economic challenges such as poverty

and health. (OECD, 2012)

3. Innovation feeds into competition with its

disruptive interferences and competition in turn

motivates further innovation.

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3. Innovation feeds into competition with its

disruptive interferences and competition in turn

motivates further innovation.

An early Google team outside the company's

first Palo Alto office

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3. Innovation feeds into competition with its

disruptive interferences and competition in turn

motivates further innovation.

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• More than 5% of global GDP (US$ 2.6 trillion) /

over US$ 1 trillion paid in bribes each year. (OECD,

2014)

• Unstable governments / history of conflicts / low

GDP per capita income / low human development

indices. (OECD, 2014)

• Extractive institutions help corruption, feed poverty

and income imbalances, and distort the playing field

for competition demotivating industry participants.

4. Chasing off the Wolves: Corruption as the

Entropy in the Ecosystem

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• Corruption favors connections, inclusion of

artificial parameters in the marketplace and

outcomes that are not owed to the natural working

of free markets.

• The motivation to gain a competitive edge over

competitors through competition on the merits

cannot be maintained in a corrupt environment.

• Freedom of speech fosters competition by way of

both: (i) increasing transparency and fighting

corruption; (ii) directly fostering innovative thought

processes.

5. Anticorruption, antitrust and freedom

of speech as companions

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• Middle income trap is a function of productivity gap,

readily available technology and potential for structural

change. Innovation may kindle economic growth through

increases productivities and efficiencies, thereby curing the

middle income trap.

• A country can escape from middle income trap by "having

a transformation through diversification into a greater

number of products as well as movement into higher value-

added products over time". (OECD, 2012)

• Extractive institutions lead to immunodeficiencies for

middle income trap.

6. Escaping the middle income trap through

innovation

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7. The Relationship Between Corruption and

the Middle Income Trap

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7. The Relationship Between Corruption and

the Middle Income Trap

Source: Corruption Perceptions Index and Global Innovation Index (2015) Global Competitiveness Index (2014-2015)

Corruption/Ranking Innovation/Ranking Competitiveness/Ranking

Switzerland 86 (7) 68.3 (1) 5.70 (1)

United Kingdom 81 (10) 62.4 (2) 5.41 (9)

Spain 58 (36) 49.1 (27) 4.55 (35)

Turkey 42 (66) 37.8 (58) 4.46 (45)

Brazil 38 (76) 34.9 (70) 4.34 (57)

Madagascar 28 (123) 24.4 (125) 3.41 (130)

Yemen 18 (154) 20.8 (137) 2.96 (142)

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People who made competition happen...

Environment to sustain innovation cannot be corrupt; it must

be watered with freedom of speech.

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