Filip Lubinski

Abstract: A large amount of recent research on complexity economics and computational methods in competition law forms a system of contributions sharing common features, linked by the same authors, and influencing one another. From this system might emerge a new perspective, which we call here a  Systemic Approach. This reform might have a meta-legal dimension and impact not only the guidelines of competition law but also its economic and, by extension, its political and philosophical grounding. The growing interest in complexity economics within the competition law discipline, particularly in the years (e.g., Lianos, Petit, Schrepel, Rovenskaya, Moss, 2018-2023), preceded an ongoing surge in the research on the application of computational methods to its enforcement (e.g., Schrepel, Lianos, Robertson, Massarotto, since 2021). The literature in each of these areas occasionally mentions the connection between them but rarely discusses specific links. Papers discussing complexity economics often fail to explain the application of computational methods, and those presenting computational methods frequently overlook their theoretical foundation in complexity economics. The shortage in the competition law literature is crucial because, as research in this area often concludes, the success of the emerging Systemic Approach depends on making its insights accessible and interpretable. Here lies an equally significant obstacle. While papers in these areas attempt to explain abstract terms from domains of “complexity” or “computation,” they do so in an unsystematized manner and in isolation, making it problematic for a reader to link, for example, “emergence” with “bottom-up approach.” It creates a need for a comprehensive source that links the two novel areas of research in competition law, while offering a systematic dictionary of terms necessary to understand these links. The New Perspectives section of this article, considers essential concepts of complexity economics and computational methods in an order that makes their meaning possibly intuitive and the links between them clear. The next section is a Literature Review of research on complexity economics and computational methods in the area of competition law, It highlights the importance and impact of these studies, but also the lack of essential explanatory links between research conducted in them so far. The last section, Systemic Approach, provides a comprehensive review of the insights from complexity economics in competition law, focusing on their usefulness as a backdrop for ongoing research on potential application of computational methods within this legal discipline. This work might make an essential contribution to the evolution of research on competition law, from the acknowledgment of complexity economics to its operationalization with computational methods. To truly integrate into the economic paradigm of competition law, every new perspective on the economy needs both a sound theory, which will make it accessible and insightful, and tools to make it applicable. One cannot work without the other.

Keywords: Competition Law, Complexity Economics, Ecosystems, Computational Modeling, Legal Informatics, Agent-Based Models.

JEL Classification: A11, B41, B59, C63,  K21, L40.