Corporate & Securities Law

The FTC on Small Business Competition Policy: Are Markets Open for Entrepreneurs?

Posted on September 25, 2008
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol Chairman Kovacic of the FTC has a worthwhile read in his comments that were part of his testimony on Small Business Competition Policy: Are Markets Open for Entrepreneurs?

United States Courts and the Optimal Deterrence of International Cartels: A Welfarist Perspective on Empagran

Posted on September 25, 2008
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol Alvin Klevorick (Yale Law) discusses United States Courts and the Optimal Deterrence of International Cartels: A Welfarist Perspective on Empagran. ABSTRACT: E. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. v. Empagran S.A. concerned a private antitrust suit for damages...

Small Business Competition Policy: Are Markets Open for Entrepreneurs

Posted on September 25, 2008
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol Jonathan Rubin (Patton Boggs) testified on behalf of the American Antitrust Institute before the United States House of Representatives, Committee on Small Business. His testimony is available below. Download jr_testimonyfinalbis3_1...

Estimating Market Power with Economic Profits

Posted on September 25, 2008
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol Kevin Kreitzman and Michael A. Williams (both of ERS Group) write on Estimating Market Power with Economic Profits. ABSTRACT: A firm's market power is embodied in its cash flows. Economic profits, the excess return on...

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Navigating Scylla and Charybdis: Three Stages in the Journey to Effective Section 2 Enforcement

Posted on September 25, 2008
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol Tom Barnett (DOJ Antitrust) spoke on Navigating Scylla and Charybdis: Three Stages in the Journey to Effective Section 2 Enforcement at Georgetown University Law Center on September 23, 2008.

Tying as Price Discrimination in Antitrust Law

Posted on September 24, 2008
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol Sahin Ardiyok of Bilgi University (Law) and Bilkent University (Law) has an analysis of Tying as Price Discrimination in Antitrust Law. ABSTRACT: This paper focuses on the question of whether the task of distributing the...

Interview with Chairman Kovacic

Posted on September 24, 2008
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol Concurrences, the online site for European competition policy has an interview with FTC Chairman Kovacic that is worth examining. My favorite quote: "In 1979, nobody envisioned that competition policy would be a concern beyond a...

Continuity and Change in the Supreme Court: Antitrust as a Case Study

Posted on September 24, 2008
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol In what looks to be a an excellent event, the American Enterprise Institute's 2008 Gauer Distinguished Lecture will be given by the Honorable Douglas H. Ginsburg, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia...

Reject the Highmark/Blue Cross Merger

Posted on September 24, 2008
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol David Balto provided testimony before the Pennsylvania Senate Banking and Insurance Committee to Reject the Highmark/Blue Cross Merger.

Standard-Setting, Innovation Specialists, and Competition Policy

Posted on September 23, 2008
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol Richard Schmalensee, Sloan School of Management, MIT, discusses Standard-Setting, Innovation Specialists, and Competition Policy in his latest working paper. ABSTRACT: This paper investigates several competition policy questions related to standard-setting organizations (SSOs)...

Collusion in US Agriculture - DOJ Investigates Potential Cartels

Posted on September 23, 2008
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol The WSJ has an article in today's paper on a DOJ investigation into egg producers and California tomato processors. Collusion in agriculture is not surprising given high concentration in the industry and low levels of...

The Antitrust Economics (and Law) of Surcharging Credit Card Transactions

Posted on September 23, 2008
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol Steven Semeraro, Thomas Jefferson School of Law, offers some thoughts on The Antitrust Economics (and Law) of Surcharging Credit Card Transactions. ABSTRACT: When a customer uses a credit card, the merchant pays a small percentage...

Defining Product Markets in the UK Grocery Industry

Posted on September 23, 2008
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol Kate Collyer (UK Competition Commission) and Andrew Taylor (UK Competition Commission) provide some insights on Defining Product Markets in the UK Grocery Industry. ABSTRACT: On April 30, 2008, the UK Competition Commission published the final...

The Audit Industry: World's Weakest Oligopoly?

Posted on September 22, 2008
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol Bernard Asher of the American Antitrust Institute has written a piece on The Audit Industry: World's Weakest Oligopoly? ABSTRACT: The world’s audit oligopoly is composed of four accounting firms: PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, Ernst & Young, and...

Market Definition in Grocery Retailing: The Whole Foods Case

Posted on September 22, 2008
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol Jordi Gual of the University of Navarra - IESE Business School and Sandra Jódar-Rosell University of Toulouse Economics (grad student) provide a European view on Market Definition in Grocery Retailing: The Whole Foods Case. ABSTRACT:...

Price Squeeze: Lessons from the Telecom Italia Case

Posted on September 22, 2008
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol A new article by Michele Polo (Professor of Economics, Bocconi University) discusses Price Squeeze: Lessons from the Telecom Italia Case. ABSTRACT: This paper analyzes a price squeeze case in the provision of telecommunication services to...

Contemplating the Future: Personal Criminal Sanctions for Infringements of EC Competition Law

Posted on September 22, 2008
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol A new piece by Peter Whelan of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law is Contemplating the Future: Personal Criminal Sanctions for Infringements of EC Competition Law. ABSTRACT: For hard-core cartels, criminal sanctions are...

Association of Competition Economics Annual Meeting

Posted on September 21, 2008
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol The Association of Competition Economics has set the date for its annual meeting (this year in lovely Budapest) from Thursday November 27 till Friday November 28. (Preliminary) Program Thursday, November 27th - 12. 30 ?...

Settlements in Cartel Cases

Posted on September 20, 2008
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for Competition Policy, gave a speech on Settlements in Cartel Cases at the annual IBA antitrust meeting in Fiesole.

FTC vs. Whole Foods: Which Standards? Which Substitutes?

Posted on September 19, 2008
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol Tim Brennan of the University of Maryland-Baltimore Department of Economics has written FTC vs. Whole Foods: Which Standards? Which Substitutes? ABSTRACT: If email traffic over the American Bar Association?s Antitrust Section ?conversation? list is any...

The Relevant Market: A Concept Still in Search of a Definition

Posted on September 19, 2008
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol Adriaan ten Kate and Gunnar Niels (Oxera) have penned The Relevant Market: A Concept Still in Search of a Definition. ABSTRACT: We identify some shortcomings of the hypothetical monopolist definition (HMD) of the relevant market...

Northwestern Law School Conference on Networks in Communications

Posted on September 18, 2008
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol I am off today to Northwestern, where I will be participating in a Research Roundtable on Networks in Telecommunications at Northwestern University Law School's Searle Center. The agenda and list of participants is available here.

Financial Crisis and Its Effects on Antitrust

Posted on September 18, 2008
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol We are in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Even the Wall Street Journal has come around to this conclusion. What does this mean for antitrust? In terms of mergers, certainly the failing...

From Competition to Regulation: New Zealand Telecommunications Sector Performance 1987-2007

Posted on September 18, 2008
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol Bronwyn E. Howell, NZ Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation Inc. and Victoria Management School, Victoria University of Wellington provides an overview of what I believe is one of the world's most interesting...

Analyzing Mergers under Asymmetric Information: A Simple Reduced-Form Approach

Posted on September 18, 2008
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol Thomas Borek, Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule Zurich (ETHZ) - Department of Mathematics, Stefan Buehler, University of St. Gallen - Department of Economics, and Armin Schmutzler, University of Zurich - Socioeconomic Institute (SOI) provide Analyzing Mergers under...

Varian in Defense of Google-Yahoo

Posted on September 17, 2008
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol Hal Varian (Berkeley Economics) who is on leave as Google's Chief Economist counters some negative commentary on the competitive effects of the proposed deal on the Google Public Policy Blog.

Collusion and Research Joint Ventures

Posted on September 17, 2008
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol Kaz Miyagiwa, Osaka University - Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) has some thoughts on Collusion and Research Joint Ventures. ABSTRACT: We examine whether cooperation in R&D leads to product market collusion. Suppose that...

House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Hearing on the Effects of Proposed Arrangement Between DHL and UPS on Competition, Customer Service, and Employment

Posted on September 17, 2008
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol For those who want to see local parochialism in action on competition matters, check out the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Hearing on the Effects of Proposed Arrangement Between DHL and UPS on Competition,...

Collusion in Repeated Procurement Auction: A Study of a Paving Market in Japan

Posted on September 17, 2008
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol Rieko Ishii of the Institute of Social and Economic Research of Osaka University has undertaken Collusion in Repeated Procurement Auction: A Study of a Paving Market in Japan. ABSTRACT: We examine auction data to determine...

The Petroleum Industry, Merger Enforcement, and the Federal Trade Commission

Posted on September 16, 2008
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol Diana L. Moss of the American Antitrust Institute writes on The Petroleum Industry, Merger Enforcement, and the Federal Trade Commission. ABSTRACT: This article attempts to provide a context for understanding the complex industry landscape against...

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