Competition policy and price fixing / Louis Kaplow.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kaplow, Louis.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Competition--Government policy.

Competition.

Antitrust law.

Price fixing.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (509 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Throughout the world, the rule against price fixing is competition law's most important and least controversial prohibition. Yet there is far less consensus than meets the eye on what constitutes price fixing, and prevalent understandings conflict with the teachings of oligopoly theory that supposedly underlie modern competition policy. Competition Policy and Price Fixing provides the needed analytical foundation. It offers a fresh, in-depth exploration of competition law's horizontal agreement requirement, presents a systematic analysis of how best to address the problem of coordinated oligopolistic price elevation, and compares the resulting direct approach to the orthodox prohibition. In doing so, Louis Kaplow elaborates the relevant benefits and costs of potential solutions, investigates how coordinated price elevation is best detected in light of the error costs associated with different types of proof, and examines appropriate sanctions. Existing literature devotes remarkably little attention to these key subjects and instead concerns itself with limiting penalties to certain sorts of interfirm communications. Challenging conventional wisdom, Kaplow shows how this circumscribed view is less well grounded in the statutes, principles, and precedents of competition law than is a more direct, functional proscription. More important, by comparison to the communications-based prohibition, he explains how the direct approach targets situations that involve both greater social harm and less risk of chilling desirable behavior--and is also easier to apply.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Summary of Contents

Preface

1. Introduction

Part I: Horizontal Agreements

2. Defining the Problem

3. Communications

4. Statutory Provisions and Higher Court Interpretations

5. U.S. Lower Court Practice

6. Paradox of Proof

7. Oligopoly Theory and the Agreement Requirement

Part II: Price-Fixing Policy

8. Social Welfare

9. Framework for Decision-Making

10. Detection: Market-Based Evidence

11. Detection: Other Types of Evidence

12. Liability Assessment

13. Sanctions

14. Unilateral Market Power

15. Additional Considerations

Part III: Comparison of Approaches

16. Communications-Based Prohibition

17. Detection of Prohibited Communications

18. Further Topics

19. Conclusion

References

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

ISBN:

9781400846078

1400846072

OCLC:

847526806