Contract Logic and Efficiency Concerns Considerations for an Efficiency Approach to Antitrust Analysis in Keeping with the Logic of Institutional Choice (original) (raw)

World Competition

Abstract

Applying transaction cost thinking to specific case assessments often results in welfare implications that contrast sharply with the respective positions taken by more prominent schools of antitrust analysis. And yet, difficulties in generalising and operationalising transaction cost economics for the purpose of policy formulation and guidance appear to forestall a broader endorsement. Unsurprisingly therefore, the EU’s new “economic-based” competition rules on vertical and horizontal restraints make little use of the approach’s superior ability to shape contract analysis. But even though transaction cost economics may seem out of reach for authorities aiming to devise simple, higher level default standards, transferred as an assessment tool to lower level regulation and case assessment, it may provide for efficient regulatory delegation in line with the White Paper’s broader competition policy reforms. What is required is an explanation of the broader economic contracting logic tha...

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