The paper examines the reasons that induced Italian Parliament not to approve an antitrust law at the end of the nineteenth century and in the first half of the twentieth, while in the United States, the first national antitrust provision, the Sherman Act, was adopted in 1890. Was the American...

The LoopCo Plan, which uses market mechanisms to promote competition, is the best approach to restructuring the telecommunications market, say its proponents, who object to the requirements and to-date implementation of the Telecommunications Act of l996. The local-loop's spin-off 's consumer...

We discuss issues of the application of antitrust law and regulatory rules to network industries. In assessing the application of antitrust in network industries, we analyze a number of relevant features of network industries and the way in which antitrust law and regulatory rules can affect...

Comment of Nicholas S. Economides on the Revised Proposed Final Judgment in United States v. Microsoft

This paper examines the current conditions in the US telecommunications sector (October 2002). We examine the impact of technological and regulatory change on market structure and business strategy. Among others, we discuss the emergence and decline of the telecom bubble, the impact on pricing...

This paper focuses on the class of legal rules that governs intellectual property rights: the antitrust limits imposed on patent settlements. The paper discusses the benefits and costs of settlements and explains why antitrust limits on settlements are needed to prevent abuse of the settlement...

E-commerce may prove a double-edged sword for antitrust enforcement. While the internet massively increases the potential size of the relevant market for any antitrust investigation, thereby reducing the need for antitrust activity, it also opens firms up to protectionist uses of antitrust by...

Predation occurs when a firm offers consumers favorable deals, usually in the short run, that get rid of competition and thereby harm consumers in the long run. Modern economic theory has shown how commitment or collective-action problems among consumers can lead to such paradoxical effects. But...

In several key industries, including semiconductors, biotechnology, computer software, and the Internet, our patent system is creating a patent thicket: an overlapping set of patent rights requiring that those seeking to commercialize new technology obtain licenses from multiple patentees. The...

There are three main paradigms that are the basis for the industrial policies throughout the world: institutionalism, Marxism, and free- enterprise. Of the three, two have been widely and intensively implemented and both of them have dismally failed. Institutionalism and Marxism either are, or...