According to The General Theory of Second Best, if one or more members of a set of optimal conditions cannot be fulfilled, there is no general reason to believe that fulfilling more of the remaining conditions will bring you closer to the optimum than fulfilling fewer of the remaining...

In 1984, then-Professor (now-Judge) Frank Easterbrook published an article recommending that U.S. courts use five filters to dismiss antitrust cases without considering the merits of the plaintiff's or State's claim in any detail. According to Easterbrook, the courts' use of these filters would...

Economists and lawyers who know some economics readily admit that the decision to place a particular product inside or outside a market may be arbitrary. However, they insist that no such arbitrary decision will ever be critical in the sense of determining the conclusion of any policy or legal...