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Competition Law Working Group Reading Club: 'The Antitrust Paradigm: Restoring a Competitive Economy' by Jonathan Baker

Dates:
  • Tue 10 Dec 2019 14.00 - 16.00
  Add to Calendar 2019-12-10 14:00 2019-12-10 16:00 Europe/Paris Competition Law Working Group Reading Club: 'The Antitrust Paradigm: Restoring a Competitive Economy' by Jonathan Baker

In its second session, the Competition Law Working Group Reading Club will discuss Jonathan Baker’s 2019 book calling for the reinvigoration of antitrust.

According to Baker, the U.S. economy is growing less competitive. Large businesses increasingly profit by taking advantage of their customers and suppliers. These firms can also use sophisticated pricing algorithms and customer data to secure substantial and persistent advantages over smaller players. In our new Gilded Age, the likes of Google and Amazon fill the roles of Standard Oil and U.S. Steel.

Against this backdrop, Jonathan Baker argues that business practices harming competition manage to go unchecked. The law has fallen behind technology, he says, but that is not the only problem. Inspired by Robert Bork, Richard Posner, and the Chicago school, the Supreme Court has, since the Reagan years, steadily eroded the protections of antitrust. The Antitrust Paradigm argues that Chicago-style reforms intended to unleash competitive enterprise have instead inflated market power, harming the welfare of workers and consumers, squelching innovation, and reducing overall economic growth. Baker identifies the errors in economic arguments for staying the course and advocates for a middle path between laissez-faire and forced deconcentration: the revival of pro-competitive economic regulation, of which antitrust has long been the backbone.

Drawing on the latest in empirical and theoretical economics to defend the benefits of antitrust, Baker shows how enforcement and jurisprudence can be updated for the high-tech economy. 

Emeroteca - Badia Fiesolana DD/MM/YYYY
  Emeroteca - Badia Fiesolana

In its second session, the Competition Law Working Group Reading Club will discuss Jonathan Baker’s 2019 book calling for the reinvigoration of antitrust.

According to Baker, the U.S. economy is growing less competitive. Large businesses increasingly profit by taking advantage of their customers and suppliers. These firms can also use sophisticated pricing algorithms and customer data to secure substantial and persistent advantages over smaller players. In our new Gilded Age, the likes of Google and Amazon fill the roles of Standard Oil and U.S. Steel.

Against this backdrop, Jonathan Baker argues that business practices harming competition manage to go unchecked. The law has fallen behind technology, he says, but that is not the only problem. Inspired by Robert Bork, Richard Posner, and the Chicago school, the Supreme Court has, since the Reagan years, steadily eroded the protections of antitrust. The Antitrust Paradigm argues that Chicago-style reforms intended to unleash competitive enterprise have instead inflated market power, harming the welfare of workers and consumers, squelching innovation, and reducing overall economic growth. Baker identifies the errors in economic arguments for staying the course and advocates for a middle path between laissez-faire and forced deconcentration: the revival of pro-competitive economic regulation, of which antitrust has long been the backbone.

Drawing on the latest in empirical and theoretical economics to defend the benefits of antitrust, Baker shows how enforcement and jurisprudence can be updated for the high-tech economy. 


Location:
Emeroteca - Badia Fiesolana

Affiliation:
Department of Law

Type:
Working group

Contact:
Valentina Spiga - Send a mail

Organiser:
Working Group Competition Law

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