| Abstract: | The authors were invited to prepare a paper for the National Consumer Council to discuss the consumer interest in competition policy. While the analytical basis of competition policy has been extensively discussed in various places and empirical evidence on structure-conduct-performance relationships in industry is available, they have not found any material which deals systematically with a possible con sumer oriented approach to competition policy. Before offering specific policy suggestions they have therefore found it necessary to establish a theoretical basis for the identification of the consumer's interest in these matters. This is then used to guide their comments on the particular implications for competition policy. By competition policy they refer to that area of government policy which seeks to control the creation or conduct of dominant firms and other forms of restraint on competition. The analytical model is developed primarily in terms of a consideration of the effects of monopoly, to simplify the discussion it is therefore assumed that cartels can be viewed as a special case of monopoly. In the paper they have treated the consumer as a household-based purchaser and they do not therefore take into account the interests of industrial purchasers. |
