Competition Policy
Theory and Practice

The first book offering a systematic treatment of the economics of antitrust or competition policy.

Massimo Motta (Author)

9780521816632, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 12 January 2004

642 pages, 35 b/w illus. 19 tables
24.2 x 16 x 3.7 cm, 1.005 kg

'The book presents a good mix of examples, simple and intuitive explanations and more demanding, formalised models as well as exercises with suggested solutions. The true value of this book lies in its level of detail'. European Competition Law Review

This is the first book to provide a systematic treatment of the economics of antitrust (or competition policy) in a global context. It draws on the literature of industrial organisation and on original analyses to deal with such important issues as cartels, joint-ventures, mergers, vertical contracts, predatory pricing, exclusionary practices, and price discrimination, and to formulate policy implications on these issues. The interaction between theory and practice is one of the main features of the book, which contains frequent references to competition policy cases and a few fully developed case studies. The treatment is written to appeal to practitioners and students, to lawyers and economists. It is not only a textbook in economics for first year graduate or advanced undergraduate courses, but also a book for all those who wish to understand competition issues in a clear and rigorous way. Exercises and some solved problems are provided.

Part I. Competition Policy: History, Objectives and the Law: 1. Introduction
2. Brief history of competition policy
3. Objectives of competition policy, and other public policies
4. The main features of European competition law
5. Exercises
Part II. Market Power and Welfare: Introduction: 6. Overview of the chapter
7. Allocative efficiency
8. Productive efficiency
9. Dynamic efficiency
10. Public policies and incentives to innovate
11. Monopoly: will the market fix it all?
12. Summary and policy conclusions
13. Exercises
14. Solutions of exercises
Part III. Market Definition and the Assessment of Market Power: 15. Introduction
16. Market definition
17. The assessment of market power
18. Exercises
Part IV. Collusion and Horizontal Agreements: 19. Introduction
20. Factors that facilitate collusion
21. Advanced material
22. Practice: what should be legal and what illegal?
23. Joint-ventures and other horizontal agreements
24. A case of parallel behaviour: wood pulp
25. Exercises
Part V. Horizontal Mergers: 26. Introduction
27. Unilateral effects
28. Pro-collusive effects
29. A more general model
30. Merger remedies
31. Merger policy in the European Union
32. Case studies
33. Exercises
Part VI. Vertical Restraints and Vertical Mergers: 34. What are vertical restraints?
35. Intra-brand competition
36. Inter-brand competition
37. Anti-competitive effects: leverage and foreclosure
38. Conclusions and policy implications
39. Cases
40. Exercises
Part VII. Predation, Monopolisation, and Other Abusive Practices: 41. Introduction
42. Predatory pricing
43. Non-price monopolisation practices
44. Price discrimination
45. US v. Microsoft
46. Exercises
47. Solutions of exercises
Part VIII. A Toolkit: Game Theory and Imperfect Competition Models: 48. Introduction
49. Monopoly
50. Oligopoly I: market competition in static games
51. Oligopoly II: dynamic games
52. Appendix.

Subject Areas: International business [KJK], Business competition [KJF], Political economy [KCP], International economics [KCL]