Showing archive for: “Mergers & Merger Enforcement”
What’s Missing from Tyler’s IO Reading List
Tyler Cowen has posted the reading list for his 2010 Industrial Organization class in the George Mason economics department. He asks for recommendations. Below the fold are my suggestions to supplement Section I or II of Cowen’s reading list. The first order of business is getting Coase, Klein, Crawford Alchian (1978), Alchian and Demsetz (1972) ... What’s Missing from Tyler’s IO Reading List
Obama, Antitrust, and the Great Recession
On the campaign trail, Barack Obama made an issue of the ostensibly lax state of antitrust enforcement during the Bush administration. Christine Varney’s first public act as head of the Antitrust Division was to withdraw the Bush Antitrust Division’s unilateral monopolization report and announce that trustbusting against dominant firms was back on the agenda. Expectations ... Obama, Antitrust, and the Great Recession
TOTM Welcomes Dan Crane
TOTM is pleased to announce Professor Daniel Crane (Michigan Law) as — for now we hope — a guest blogger. Dan is a prolific scholar in antitrust and intellectual property. Dan’s recent work has focused on antitrust and economic regulation, particularly the institutional structure of antitrust enforcement, predatory pricing, bundling, and the antitrust implications of ... TOTM Welcomes Dan Crane
Commissioner Rosch’s really weak case for “behavioral antitrust”
Josh’s ongoing series on “Nudging Antitrust” and FTC Commissioner Rosch’s recent thoughts on behavioral economics has been excellent and I look forward to the next installment. Rosch’s speech, not surprisingly, also elicited a strong response from me. What follows are my thoughts on Rosch’s speech, focusing on some of the same issues Josh addressed in ... Commissioner Rosch’s really weak case for “behavioral antitrust”
Fin Reg and Too Big to Fail: A New Kind of Antitrust?
Simon Johnson argues that the conventional antitrust tools of Sherman Act are outdated and ill-equipped to deal with the power of big banks: Why are these antitrust tools not used against today’s megabanks, which have become so powerful that they can sway legislation and regulation massively in their favor, while also receiving generous taxpayer-financed bailouts ... Fin Reg and Too Big to Fail: A New Kind of Antitrust?
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Bainbridge’s latest on insider trading inside the beltway Google and antitrust, everywhere (declared a monopoly in France, the ITA acquisition, and maybe Google not barred from selling targeted ads on iPhone’s and iPad’s afterall) The DOJ ag / antitrust hearings turn their attention to dairy No link for this one, but does anybody have any ... Some Links
Solving Shelf Space Incentive Conflicts With Vertical Integration and By Contract in the Soda Market
There is a nice example in the WSJ concerning the economics of vertical contractual arrangements. I’ve noted previously the apparent trend in the soda industry toward vertical integration and the link to the economics of promotional shelf space. In particular, incentive conflicts between manufacturers and retailers of differentiated products over the use of promotional shelf ... Solving Shelf Space Incentive Conflicts With Vertical Integration and By Contract in the Soda Market
Broad preemption and the federal takeover of state law
Last fall Guhan Subramanian, Steve Herscovici and Brian Barbetta (“SHB”) posted a paper claiming that Delaware’s antitakeover statute (Delaware GCL Section 203) was preempted by the Williams Act because it did not leave hostile bidders the “meaningful opportunity for success” required by three 1988 federal district courts which had upheld the Delaware law back in ... Broad preemption and the federal takeover of state law
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TOTM guest blogger Steve Salop makes the case for Vertical Merger Guidelines National Supermarkets Association files class action interchange-based antitrust suit against American Express (apparently alleging the relevant market is “American Express payment card services”!) Dell puts aside $100 million reserve fund in case it has to settle the SEC allegations we blogged about here ... Some Links
Two Submissions to the Horizontal Merger Guidelines Review Project
This week, I submitted two comments to the Horizontal Merger Guidelines Revision Project. The first, submitted with a group of economists focusing on the use of price/cost margins in merger analysis. The submission lays out the basic relationship between margins and elasticities that flows from the profit-maximization assumption, and then discusses several of the factors ... Two Submissions to the Horizontal Merger Guidelines Review Project
Judge Sullivan and the UPP: Much Ado About Nothing or Articulating the Real Problem with the New HMGs?
Much has been made of Judge Sullivan’s recent decision in City of New York v. Group Health Incorporated and its implications for the UPP test and market definition in merger cases under Section 7 of the Clayton Act. Given the 2010 Proposed Horizontal Merger Guidelines’ (2010 HMGs) shift toward diversion ratios and margins and away ... Judge Sullivan and the UPP: Much Ado About Nothing or Articulating the Real Problem with the New HMGs?
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Facebook hires recent Kirkpatrick Award winner Tim Muris to manage their antitrust and consumer protection business at the Federal Trade Commission (or did they?) My colleague Neomi Rao in the WSJ on the Kagan nomination The UK British Airways price-fixing trial implodes after the OFT didn’t turn over evidence (Businessweek) The FTC has, to its ... Some Links
