Putting a Number on the Debate : An Empirical Assessment of U.S. Federal Antitrust Enforcement by State Attorneys General

The recent challenge by state attorneys general (“State AGs”) to the DOJ’s settlement in T-Mobile/Sprint has rekindled the enduring debate regarding the appropriate role for State AGs in federal antitrust enforcement. That debate has relied primarily upon theories of antitrust federalism and anecdotes. This Article fills an important void in the literature by providing and analyzing a newly constructed database of State AG enforcement of federal antitrust laws over the last twenty years and providing a cost-benefit analysis of State AG enforcement institutions. This Article informs the important and longstanding debate over the appropriate role of State AGs in federal antitrust enforcement by moving beyond theory and anecdote and providing an empirical foundation for understanding what it is State AGs do in practice