Strategic Business Behavior And Antitrust

The most important book on antitrust ever written. It shows how antitrust suits adversely affect the consumer by encouraging a costly form of protection for inefficient and uncompetitive small businesses.

As the economists and lawyers contributing to this volume demonstrate, an important element of the Reagan Revolution has been a fundamental shift in antitrust policy and enforcement away from the focus on market structure during the 1960s and early 1970s toward a greater emphasis on the effects of business conduct on economic efficiency and consumer welfare. This shift, caused both by a marked change in the political climate and changes in the thinking and research output of economists, has had an enormous impact on the volume and substance of antitrust activity during the 1980s. The articles collected here--each written especially for this volume--assess these changes in antitrust activity in key policy areas: mergers, vertical restraints, monopoly, and strategic behavior. The authors examine particularly the impact of the change in antitrust enforcement and policy on social welfare. They point out where changes have been beneficial, evaluate whether further changes in policy or law are desirable, and probe unresolved issues, such as whether current policy pays too little attention to the possible strategic or anticompetitive aspects of some forms of business conduct. Taken together, these essays offer a multifaceted explanation of the ways in which economics has contributed to changes in antitrust policy and law. By providing a more thorough understanding of developments in industrial economics during the last 30 years, the authors also provide lawyers, economists, business executives, and students of business administration with new insights into possible future trends in antitrust policy and law--and their impact on the structure of American businesses and markets.

Through an effective blend of analysis and examples this text integrates the game theory revolution with the traditional understanding of imperfectly competitive markets. The book's focus is on strategic competition and how firms can shelter their market power and economic profits from competitors. This focus establishes the intellectual foundation for determining business practices that warrant antitrust examination and prohibition and underlines recent activist antitrust policy. The author's stress an integrated understanding of industrial organization and the development of students' analytical abilities.