Reforming Antitrust

A nuanced examination of how antitrust law must change to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century economy.

Alan J. Devlin (Author)

9781316518342, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 19 August 2021

300 pages
23.5 x 16 x 2.1 cm, 0.63 kg

'Well-written and engaging even to the lay reader, this new volume is a must-read for anyone interested in antitrust reform. Devlin charts a careful middle course between our current weakened system of antitrust enforcement and the calls for radical reform coming from many quarters today. This is a book with the potential to make the world a better place.' Mark A. Lemley, Stanford Law School

Industrial consolidation, digital platforms, and changing political views have spurred debate about the interplay between public and private power in the United States and have created a bipartisan appetite for potential antitrust reform that would mark the most profound shift in US competition policy in the past half-century. While neo-Brandeisians call for a reawakening of antitrust in the form of a return to structuralism and a concomitant rejection of economic analysis founded on competitive effects, proponents of the status quo look on this state of affairs with alarm. Scrutinizing the latest evidence, Alan J. Devlin finds a middle ground. US antitrust laws warrant revision, he argues, but with far more nuance than current debates suggest. He offers a new vision of antitrust reform, achieved by refining our enforcement policies and jettisoning an unwarranted obsession with minimizing errors of economic analysis.

Introduction
Part I. Antitrust Today: 1. Competition Law's role
2. Antitrust – Fact, fiction, and the unknown
3. The missing link – concentration and market power
Part II. The Case for Change: 4. Warning signs in the economy – has competition declined?
5. A liberal call to arms, but is deconcentration the answer?
6. Testing the neo-brandeisian vision
Part III. Antitrust Reform: 7. Taking a finger off the scale – revisiting decision theory
8. Rethinking the consumer-welfare standard
9. The antitrust evolution
Conclusion. Key recommendations.

Subject Areas: Competition law / Antitrust law [LNCH], Comparative law [LAM], Economics of industrial organisation [KCD], Central government policies [JPQB]