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The Late Emerging Consensus Among American Economists on Antitrust Laws in the Second New Deal

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  • Thierry Kirat
  • Frédéric Marty

Abstract

This paper presents the late convergence process from US economists that led them to support a strong antitrust enforcement in the late thirties despite their long standing distrust toward this legislation. The 1945 Alcoa decision crafted by Judge Hand embodied the results of this convergence. The purpose of antitrust law enforcement does not consist in promoting economic efficiency, as today’s more economic approach advocates, but in searching for a reasonable compromise aiming at preventing improper uses of economic power. This paper presents the path from which institutionalist economists, on one side, and Chicagoan neoliberals, on the other one, have converged on supporting the President F.D. Roosevelt administration towards reinvigorating antitrust law enforcement as of 1938, putting aside their initial preferences for a regulated competition model or for laissez-faire. Read the revised version of this publication

Suggested Citation

  • Thierry Kirat & Frédéric Marty, 2019. "The Late Emerging Consensus Among American Economists on Antitrust Laws in the Second New Deal," CIRANO Working Papers 2019s-12, CIRANO.
    • Handle: RePEc:cir:cirwor:2019s-12
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    File URL: https://cirano.qc.ca/files/publications/2019s-12.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Allyn A. Young, 1915. "The Sherman Act and the New Anti-Trust Legislation: III," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 23, pages 417-417.
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    3. Richard N. Langlois, 2018. "Hunting the Big Five: Twenty-first Century Antitrust in Historical Perspective," Working papers 2018-01, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics, revised Apr 2018.
    4. Bougette, Patrice & Deschamps, Marc & Marty, Frã‰Dã‰Ric, 2015. "When Economics Met Antitrust: The Second Chicago School and the Economization of Antitrust Law," Enterprise & Society, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(2), pages 313-353, June.
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    8. Frédéric Marty, 2014. "Le critère du bien-être du consommateur comme objectif exclusif de la politique de concurrence. Une mise en perspective sur la base de l’histoire de l’antitrust américain," Revue internationale de droit économique, De Boeck Université, vol. 0(4), pages 471-497.
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    10. Allyn A. Young, 1915. "The Sherman Act and the New Anti-Trust Legislation: II," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 23, pages 305-305.
    11. J. Bradford De Long, 1990. "In Defense of Henry Simon's Standing as a Classical Liberal," Cato Journal, Cato Journal, Cato Institute, vol. 9(3), pages 601-618, Winter.
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    13. Stigler, George J, 1982. "The Economists and the Problem of Monopoly," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(2), pages 1-11, May.
    14. Patrice Bougette & Marc Deschamps & Frédéric Marty, 2015. "When Economics Met Antitrust: The Second Chicago School and the Economization of Antitrust Law," Post-Print halshs-01090048, HAL.
    15. William Comanor & F. M. Scherer, 1995. "Rewriting History: the Early Sherman Act Monopolization Cases," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2(2), pages 263-290.
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    Cited by:

    1. Patrice Bougette & Frédéric Marty, 2020. "Information Exchange among Firms: The Coherence of Justice Brandeis' Regulated Competition Approach," Working Papers halshs-03086314, HAL.
    2. Thierry Kirat & Frédéric Marty, 2021. "How Law and Economics Was Marketed in a Hostile World: The Institutionalization of the Field in the United States from the Immediate Post-War Period to the Reagan Years," GREDEG Working Papers 2021-03, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    3. Frédéric Marty, 2020. "Is the Consumer Welfare Obsolete? A European Union Competition Law Perspective," GREDEG Working Papers 2020-13, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Antitrust; efficiency; economic power; institutional economics; Chicago School;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B25 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary; Austrian; Stockholm School
    • K21 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Antitrust Law
    • L40 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - General
    • N42 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-

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