One prong of the antitrust litigation against Microsoft Corporation challenges the terms under which Microsoft has licensed its Windows operating system to computer manufacturers (OEMs). Plaintiffs complain that the license agreements' requirement that the first screen to appear when customers...

One prong of the antitrust litigation against Microsoft Corporation challenges the terms under which Microsoft has licensed its Windows operating system to computer manufacturers (OEMs). Plaintiffs complain that the license agreements' requirement that the first screen to appear when customers...

Although antitrust courts sometimes stress the competitive process, they have not deeply explored what that process is. Inspired by the theory of the core, we explore the idea that the competitive process is the process of sellers and buyers forming improving coalitions. Much of antitrust can be...

In this review of John Lott's book, Are Predatory Commitments Credible?: Who Should the Courts Believe?, we find that Lott is more successful in pointing out the likelihood of predatory pricing by public enterprises than in proving that predatory pricing by private enterprises does not occur. In...

Through the end of the twentieth century, the most critical regulatory issue facing electric utilities was stranded costs, which can be defined as those costs that the utilities were permitted to recover through their rates but whose recovery may have been impeded or prevented by the advent of...

United States v. Terminal Railroad Association, the essential facilities doctrine has been applied to a wide variety of business contexts - from football stadiums to the New York Stock Exchange. However, courts have also declined to extend the doctrine to a wide variety of situations. Despite...

The paper addresses the question of pricing access to the network facilities of an incumbent firm after deregulation. Network access pricing continues to be regulated in such industries as telecommunications, railroads, electric power and natural gas. We emphasize that access prices should be...

Discussions of competition in restructured electricity markets have revealed many misunderstandings about the definition, diagnosis, and implications of market power. In this paper, I attempt to clarify the meaning of market power and show how it can be distinguished from competitive pricing in...

In a recent report commissioned by the Norwegian government, a group of experts have presented a new framework for Norwegian competition analysis and policy, see von der Fehr, Norman, Reve and Ryssdal (1998). In conclusion, we believe the report represents a major contribution to the discussion...

Firms may be able to create new and improved products as a result of merging. These "demand-side efficiencies" should be considered by competition authorities in considering whether to allow a merger. Unlike reductions in costs that merged firms may not pass on to consumers, new and better...