Antitrust,the Rule of Reason,and Democracy

Professor Barnes responds to William Curran's fictional dialogue between Senator John Sherman and philosopher John Rawls, with a fictional letter from Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas. Professor Barnes discusses the importance of the anarcho-socialist movement of the late nineteenth century to the adoption of the Sherman Act, the historical and logical inevitability of adoption of a rule of reason in antitrust law, the relevance of efficiency to the rule of reason, and the relationship between competition and the promotion of democratic ideals.     

Delusions Regarding the Proper Role of Markets and Antitrust Policy

William Curran and Donald Wellington have criticized capitalism,neoclassical economics and antitrust policy. This article defendscapitalistic institutions against both the strong forms ofsocialism as practiced in the former Soviet Union and againstits milder forms as practiced in the welfare states of Europe.The article endorses some of Curran's and Wellington's concernsabout neoclassical economics, but recommends that neoclassicaleconomics be adapted to make it more useful for scientificresearch rather than abandoned outright. Some suggestions areoffered in this direction. The article totally rejects the notionthat antitrust policy can be a tool for correcting the ills ofcapitalism as Curran and Wellington see them, and argues that thegoal of antitrust policy should be to improve capitalism not todestroy it.     

Recent Antitrust Enforcement Actions by the U.S. Department of Justice: A Selective Survey of Economic Issues

This paper discusses some of the most interesting economic issues raised by U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division proceedings that had significant developments between June 1, 2001 and May 31, 2002. The paper reviews six recent merger enforcement actions and three actions involving unilateral anticompetitive conduct.     

After The Fall: Stock Price Movements and the Deterrent Effect of Antitrust Enforcement

In this paper, we utilize data on stock price movements of firms indicted on price-fixing charges to infer expectations of antitrust recidivism. Specifically, a return of the firm's (market-adjusted) asset value to its pre-indictment level in the post-indictment period is taken as evidence of stockholders' expectations of a return to collusive behavior. From these data, we are able to make direct inferences about the effectiveness of antitrust enforcement actions. Importantly, we find that the stock prices of 85 percent of the firms in our sample had regained 100 percent of their pre-indictment levels within one year of the antitrust action. Such widespread and rapid stock price appreciation casts doubt on the durability of thedeterrent effect of Section 1 enforcement.     

The Evolution of Competition Policy in Indonesia

This paper assesses the evolution of the new Indonesian competition law passed in 1999, and the creation of the Competition Commission. The first half of the paper traces the debate and process of deregulation and liberalization that preceded the introduction of the law. Whilst deregulation did lead to increased competition and efficiency, distortions to competition in the goods sector still persisted due to ad hoc and non transparent measures taken due to government interventions and vested interests. The services and infrastructure sectors were only partially liberalized. The second half of the paper evaluates the debate on competition law and assesses its introduction and implementation. In the brief period of implementation to date, the tension between a pro-competition and an anti-bigness interpretation of the Law is evident. The paper concludes that ambiguities in the law should be eliminated, that the competition agency focuses on advocacy and introducing transparent procedures rather than hastening towards concluding investigations, and that competition issues faced by independent regulatory agencies in the services and infrastructure sectors should be introduced carefully.     

Defining Market Dominance: A Study of Antitrust Decisions on Business Acquisitions in New Zealand

Information from the 207 decisions of the New ZealandCommerce Commission on business acquisitions for1991–96 are used to test how the Commission assessedmarket dominance. Dominance is found to emerge whereboth the market share of the merged entity and theentry barriers were high. A probit regression modelsuggests that there was a 50% probability thatdominance would be found when market share was 75%,in a market where the entry barrier was high. Theapplication of the US merger guidelines to a sub-setof markets finds that the dominance threshold ofanti-competitiveness applied to New Zealand mergerswas very much more lenient than the substantiallessening of competition threshold used in the U.S.     

Governing online platforms: Competition policy in times of platformization

This paper argues that a paradigmatic change in competition policy is needed and empirically under way to cope with the challenges posed by economically strong online platforms and their big-data-based business models. Competition policy needs to move further away from its traditional price-oriented emphasis and increasingly focus on non-price competition, on attention markets and zero prices, and on big user data, which has become a new asset class in digital economies.     

虚拟合作竞争:机理、系统模型及实证研究

在网络经济环境下,传统的竞争范式已不适应,一种新的竞争范式——虚拟合作竞争应运而生。本文在有关研究的基础上,对虚拟合作竞争的内涵、特征、主体、客体、市场、虚拟合作关系和虚拟竞争关系进行了较系统地探索性研究,提出了由客户、供应商、互惠者、协力者、替代者、潜在进入者、竞争者7种力量,以及它们相互间基于网络化信息系统所形成的3种虚拟合作关系,以及3种虚拟竞争关系所构成的虚拟合作竞争模型,并以利丰公司为例进行了实证。     

航天产业与市场运行机制的兼容性分析

本文从航天技术商业化和航天活动主体多元化趋势的角度来分析航天产业与市场运行机制兼容的基础,分析了航天产业市场竞争的特点,制约我国航天产业引入市场运行机制的几个因素,并提出了我国航天产业建立和完善市场运行机制的对策建议。     

A quantitative analysis of trade policy responses to higher world agricultural commodity prices

The worldwide spike in prices of agricultural commodities in 2007–2008 elevated food security and social stability issues to the forefront, especially in many food-deficit countries. In order to mitigate the global food commodity price pressure on domestic markets, several major exporting and importing countries, mostly developing economies, adopted trade policy changes such as export bans (or raising export restrictions) or reducing import tariffs during the same period. This paper estimates the potential impacts of these policies on the world prices and trade of major agricultural commodities using a set of multi-country, multi-commodity, and partial-equilibrium models. Our findings suggest that over all, the trade policy responses in various countries increased the prices of all agricultural commodities, although the impact on the total net trade varies by commodity. The simulation results show that the overall impact of trade policy distortions on the world rice price is most significant at 24%, followed by wheat (14%) and barley (9%). In general, the poorer food-deficit countries/regions, which have limited power to manipulate their trade policies, experienced higher price increases compared to those major trading countries that adopted policy interventions. Also, the developing countries that are net importers which did not implement trade policy interventions experienced significant welfare losses resulting from interventions implemented by other major trading countries.     

入世后石油化工市场广告竞争的理论分析

应用成熟的市场经济理论，论述了入世后我国的石油化工企业参与广告竞争的必要性，以及如何避免过度广告带来的资源浪费。     

Fruit and vegetable access to EU markets: Dissecting tariffs faced by Mediterranean countries

This paper analyzes the access of Eastern and Southern Mediterranean countries to the EU fruit and vegetables market and provides a measure of the level of preferences from which they benefit. To take into account the complexity of EU protection in the F&V sector, in particular the seasonality of protection and the Entry Price System, we conducted our analysis at a very disaggregated level (eight digits of the nomenclature, monthly data). We showed that, on average, Mediterranean countries do have significant preferences compared to other countries exporting to the EU. However, the magnitude of the preferences differs among countries; Morocco has the highest preference, while Syria and Israel have the lowest. We simulated a multilateral reduction in the MFN tariffs (as planned in the Doha Round) and showed that this would reduce the heterogeneity within the zone by more strongly eroding the preferences of the most advantaged countries. The classification of Entry Price products as sensitive products would either benefit or have no effect on most Mediterranean countries.     

加入WTO后我国石化工业面临的竞争环境

通过对国内外宏观经济环境分析和我国加入 WTO后国内外石油石化工业面临的竞争环境分析 ,指出了中国石化工业可能面临的机遇和挑战。     

反行政性垄断与促进竞争政策研究新进展——“转轨经济中的反行政性垄断与促进竞争政策”国际研讨会观点综述

行政性垄断由于造成资源配置扭曲、社会福利损失、收入分配不均以及地方保护和区域市场分割等问题而日益成为社会各界关注的焦点。2007年11月19日在山东大学召开的“转轨经济中的反行政性垄断与促进竞争政策”国际研讨会对反行政性垄断的理论与政策问题进行了集中交流与探讨。本文介绍了与会专家学者对于该问题的主要学术观点．综述了反行政性垄断研究的新进展以及该领域亟待解决的理论和实践问题。     

Open Entry and Local Telephone Rates: The Economics of IntraLATA Toll Competition

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 removes state-level legal and regulatory barriers to entry that previously have proscribed facilities-based interchange carriers from entering intraLATA toll markets. Traditionally, these markets have provided excess profits that local exchange companies ostensibly have used to subsidize local telephone rates. Elimination of these entry barriers, then, raises concern that the resulting intensification of competition will force unwanted local residential rate increases. In this paper, we critically examine the local-rate-increase question both theoretically and empirically. Our analysis finds no evidence that intraLATA toll competition will adversely affect local rates.     

Strategic Responses to Regulatory Policies: What Lessons Can Be Learned from the U.K. Contract Gas Market?

The gas industry was first privatisedin 1986, and the regulator, Ofgas, identified thecontract gas market as a possibility for introducinginitial competition into the industry. Nevertheless,competing shippers were slow in entering the market.Subsequently, Ofgas introduced a series ofpro-competitive policies. It, however, invoked aseries of strategic behaviour by the incumbentshipper, British Gas. The effectiveness of thesemeasures are analysed here with respect to theevolving competitive process. The issues it raised,especially when formulating future regulatory policiesand theories, are also considered.     

Product standards and developing country agricultural exports: The case of the European Union

This paper shows that voluntary product standards in EU food and agriculture markets can have significant trade effects. In particular for all countries and for goods that are raw or lightly processed, EU standards can often be trade-inhibiting. However, internationally harmonized EU standards—those that are equivalent to ISO norms—have much weaker trade effects, and in some cases are even trade-promoting. EU standards may have hurt developed countries more than developing countries, but this result is dependent on the sector. At a policy level, the results highlight the importance of dealing with the trade effects of voluntary standards in major markets, not just mandatory public standards.     

Competition in Grocery Retailing: The Impact of a New Strategic Group on BLS Price Increases

Metropolitan areas with a significant presence of warehouse stores had lower retail food price increases during 1977 to 1992 than did areas with no warehouse stores. The negative impact occurred largely during the first half of the 15-year period. Strategic learning appears to have led to a different response from incumbent supermarkets during 1985–1992. Change in prices was positively related to change in concentration and negatively related to entry.     

Empirical effects of short-term export bans: The case of African maize

Temporary export restrictions have been widely used in recent years in an attempt to stabilize domestic prices of staple grains. I use monthly, market-level price data to investigate the empirical effects of 13 short-term export bans on maize implemented by 5 countries in East and Southern Africa. I find no statistically significant effect of export bans on the price gaps between pairs of affected cross-border markets. My results for price gaps match those from a model simulation in which export bans are not implemented. However, prices and price volatility in the implementing country are significantly higher during export ban periods in the data than in the model simulation with no bans. Export bans in the region are imperfectly enforced, divert trade into the informal sector, and appear to destabilize domestic markets rather than stabilizing them.     

中国输欧纺织品服装结构分析

自2005年起,中国与欧盟在纺织品服装贸易问题上摩擦不断。本文通过计算中国和欧盟15国的贸易竞争力指数,分析了中国输欧纺织品服装结构中的劳动密集型和粗加工特征,并指出了这种出口结构存在的问题,最后给出了相应的对策建议。