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Presidential Address: Antitrust restrictions on single‐firm strategies

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  • Ralph A. Winter

Abstract

This article offers an overview of selected developments in the law and economics of antitrust regulation of single‐firm strategies. The strategy generating the most cases historically is resale price maintenance. Here, the law has moved sharply in both Canada and the U.S. towards more solid economic foundations. Yet a gap between the law and economics remains. The economics of resale price maintenance is reviewed within a framework that is much simpler and more general than the existing literature. The law on a second strategy, predatory pricing, represents in my view a success story for the influence of economic theory in spite of the absence of a single accepted theory of predatory pricing. The remaining single‐firm strategies are concerned largely with the exclusion by a dominant firm of rivals from a market. I review, with application to cases, the two most basic questions concerning exclusionary strategies. Are exclusionary, anticompetitive contracts ever entered into voluntarily by market participants? On the other hand, is complete or substantial foreclosure of a market through exclusionary strategies necessarily anticompetitive? Cette allocution présidentielle à l'Association canadienne d'économique présente une vue d'ensemble des développements dans le droit et l'économie de la réglementation antitrust sur les stratégies d'une firme unique. La loi sur la stratégie qui génère historiquement le plus de cas (le maintien du prix de revente) a changé dramatiquement au Canada et aux Etats‐Unis et dérivé vers une politique qui a des assises économiques solides. Mais il reste un écart entre le droit et l'économie. On réexamine l'économie du maintien du prix de revente à l'aide d'un cadre d'analyse qui est à la fois plus simple et plus général que ce qui existe dans la littérature spécialisée. La loi pour ce qui est d'une seconde stratégie (prix d'éviction) est, à mon avis, une grande réussite pour la science économique malgré l'absence d'une seule théorie du prix d'éviction généralement acceptée. Un troisième ensemble de stratégies concerne l'exclusion de ses rivaux d'un marché par la firme dominante. L'auteur réexamine, avec un recours extensif aux cas, les deux questions de base pour ce qui est des stratégies d'exclusion: Est‐ce que les participants sur un marché entrent jamais volontairement dans un arrangement contractuel qui exclut et est anticoncurrentiel? D'autre part, est‐ce que la saisie complète ou substantielle d'un marché par des manœuvres d'exclusion est nécessairement anticoncurrentielle?

Suggested Citation

  • Ralph A. Winter, 2009. "Presidential Address: Antitrust restrictions on single‐firm strategies," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 42(4), pages 1207-1239, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:canjec:v:42:y:2009:i:4:p:1207-1239
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-5982.2009.01544.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Marcel Boyer & Thomas W. Ross & Ralph A. Winter, 2017. "The rise of economics in competition policy: A Canadian perspective," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 50(5), pages 1489-1524, December.
    2. Nathan E. Wilson, 2015. "Local Market Structure and Strategic Organizational Form Choices: Evidence from Gasoline Stations," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(1), pages 119-140, February.
    3. John Asker & Heski Bar-Isaac, 2010. "Exclusionary Minimum Resale Price Maintenance," NBER Working Papers 16564, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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