Competition Policy and the Economic Approach

Edited by Josef Drexl, Director, Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Munich, Germany, Wolfgang Kerber, Professor of Economics, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany and Rupprecht Podszun, Professor for Competition Law, Chair for Competition Law, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Germany

‘While the book will probably have its greatest appeal to scholars in the field, practitioners should not neglect it, as it offers a concise compilation of fundamental issues in competition law that frequently draws from concrete cases. It is true that the book delivers few definite answers but rather raises new questions, as acknowledged by the editors in their foreword. However, this will only add to the substance of the discussion and should not be regarded as a shortcoming. The book’s biggest strength may thus well be the fact that it constantly encourages the reader to challenge conventional thinking. Moreover, it rightly calls for a distinction between the use of economic insight to inform competition policy and improve the accuracy and effectiveness of its abstract rules on the one hand, and the use of in-depth quantitative economic analyses in individual cases on the other hand.’

• Contents:IntroductionRupprecht PodszunPART I: THE GOALS OF COMPETITION POLICY1. Consumer Welfare and Competition PolicyGregory J. Werden2. Consumer Welfare, Total Welfare and Economic Freedom – On the Normative Foundations of Competition PolicyViktor J. Vanberg3. Consumer Welfare, Economic Freedom and the Moral Quality of Competition Law – Comments on Gregory Werden and Victor VanbergDaniel ZimmerPART II: MERITS AND CHALLENGES OF MODERN INDUSTRIAL ECONOMICS4. Current Issues in Antitrust AnalysisDaniel L. Rubinfeld5. Using Economics for Identifying Anticompetitive Unilateral PracticesMichele Polo6. Modern Industrial Economics: Open Problems and Possible Limits Oliver Budzinski7. Modern Industrial Economics Revisited – Comments on Daniel Rubinfeld, Michele Polo and Oliver BudzinskiLaurence IdotPART III: COMPETITION POLICY AND EVOLUTIONARY AND INNOVATION ECONOMICS8. Industrial Dynamics and Evolution – The Role of Innovation, Competences and LearningUwe Cantner9. Competition, Innovation and Maintaining Diversity through Competition LawWolfgang Kerber10. The Impact of Innovation – Comments on Uwe Cantner and Wolfgang KerberAndreas HeinemannPART IV: COMPETITION POLICY AND BEHAVIOURAL AND EXPERIMENTAL ECONOMICS11. Bounded Rationality and Competition PolicyJustus Haucap12. Using Experimental Economics to Understand CompetitionBart J. Wilson13. Competition as a Socially Desirable Dilemma – Theory v. Experimental EvidenceChristoph Engel14. Introducing More Features of Real Life into the Economists’ World of Theoretical Models – Comments on Justus Haucap, Bart Wilson and Christoph EngelAndreas FuchsPART V: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF COMPETITION POLICY15. Normative and Institutional Limitations to a More Economic ApproachDirk Schroeder16. Competition Agencies, Independence, and the Political ProcessWilliam E. Kovacic17. On the (a)political Character of the Economic Approach to Competition LawJosef DrexlIndex