We explain why competing firms form collective entities to buy patents from other entities, particularly from non-producing entities (NPEs), and follow a catch and release patent strategy. We show why competitors bidding as a single unit is better than competitors bidding against each other and...

Since the publication of Robert Bork's The Antitrust Paradox, lawyers, judges, and many economists have defended “Consumer welfare” (CW) as a standard for decisions about antitrust goals and enforcement priorities. This paper argues that the CW is actually an empty concept and is an...

In this comprehensive review of ex-post merger studies price effects of horizontal transactions are evaluated. By combining and further analyzing the results of 52 retrospective studies on 82 mergers or merger-like transactions it can be shown that the industry alone is no strong indication for...

In antitrust enforcement as in cost-benefit analysis, neoclassical economics may be interpreted as arguing for the use of a quot;total welfarequot; standard whose implementation treats transfers as welfare-neutral. Several recent papers call for antitrust agencies to move in the direction of...

Reading the book commented will provide an updated view on the current situation of antitrust politics and law in the United States. The book covers a wide spectrum of issues on market behavior and business practices affected by antitrust rules (agreements and vertical restraints , various...

The important field of antitrust and labor has gone through a profound change in orientation. For the great bulk of its history labor has been viewed as a competitive threat, and the debate over antitrust and labor was framed around whether there should be a labor “immunity” from the...

This paper explores the effects that collusion can have in newspaper markets where firms compete for advertising as well as for readership. We compare three modes of competition: i) competition in the advertising and the reader market, ii) semi-collusion over advertising (with competition in the...