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Policy Paper No. 3

Has U.S. Antitrust Policy Protected Consumers from the Abuse of Market Dominance?

Policy Paper
Reference
Crandall, Robert W. (2006). “Has U.S. Antitrust Policy Protected Consumers from the Abuse of Market Dominance?”. IFN Policy Paper No. 3. Stockholm: Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN).

Author
Robert W. Crandall

Among the United States’ most important exports are its market-oriented economic policies. The privatization and de-regulation of the transportation and communications sectors come quickly to the mind of this student of economic regulation. But why should the EU or other countries, for that matter, wish to emulate U.S. antitrust (competition) policy?

It is obvious that an open, competitive economy is a worthwhile goal, but is an aggressive competition policy – “antitrust” policy, in U.S. parlance – necessary to assure that a market economy does not retrogress to the bad old days of the Robber Barons? I would suggest that empirical evidence on the effects of U.S. antitrust policy provides little supportive evidence for such a proposition.