Standard economics provides a well-understood framework of the competitive determinants of market prices that is now widely accepted for antitrust analysis. In “two-sidedmarkets,” where firms supply products demanded by two interrelated groups of consumers, these competitive forces operate...

This article presents an expanded economic analysis of the potential procompetitive purposes served by exclusive dealing. Using examples taken from important antitrust cases, exclusive dealing is shown to be an efficient element in the arrangements manufacturers adopt with their dealers to...

It is undeniable that economics has had a huge effect on antitrust law over the last 30 years. Richard Posner, in the preface to the second, 2001 edition of his landmark book, Antitrust Law, notes that since the publication of the first edition of the book in 1976 there has been “a profound, a...

Economic theories of the firm are categorized into two types of theories – those that emphasize the role of the firm in mitigating holdup problems by firm ownership of residual control rights and those that emphasize the role of the firm in mitigating incentive problems by firm ownership of...

The economics of bundled discounts are examined by breaking the contract into two elements: (1) what the firm is buying, and (2) how the firm is paying for what it is buying. The firm is buying preferred distribution, a common aspect of competition for distribution that benefits consumers. The...

The recent success of file-sharing technologies such as Napster has highlighted the economic question of whether copying increases or decreases the market value of copyrighted works. Contrary to Michele Boldrin and David K. Levine (2002), we show that Napster-type services are likely to reduce...

The collection of user data by providers of online services recently has become a popular topic in debates about the application of competition policy to online markets. At issue is whether the collection of large amounts of data — sometimes referred to as “big data” — in particular data...