A thoroughly revised and updated edition of the leading textbook on government and business policy, presenting the key principles underlying sound regulatory and antitrust policy. Regulation and antitrust are key elements of government policy. This new edition of the leading textbook on government and business policy explains how the latest theoretical and empirical economic tools can be employed to analyze pressing regulatory and antitrust issues. The book departs from the common emphasis on institutions, focusing instead on the relevant underlying economic issues, using state-of-the-art analysis to assess the appropriate design of regulatory and antitrust policy. Extensive case studies illustrate fundamental principles and provide insight on key issues in regulation and antitrust policy. This fifth edition has been thoroughly revised and updated, reflecting both the latest developments in economic analysis and recent economic events. The text examines regulatory practices through the end of the Obama and beginning of the Trump administrations. New material includes coverage of global competition and the activities of the European Commission; recent mergers, including Comcast-NBC Universal; antitrust in the new economy, including investigations into Microsoft and Google; the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and the Dodd-Frank Act; the FDA approval process; climate change policies; and behavioral economics as a tool for designing regulatory strategies.
1. Introduction
2. The Making of a Regulation
I: Antitrust
3. Introduction to Antitrust
4. Oligopoly, Collusion, and Antitrust
5. Market Structure and Dynamic Competition
6. Horizontal Mergers
7. Vertical Mergers and Vertical Restraints
8. Monopolization and Price Discrimination
9. Antitrust in the New Economy
II: Economic Regulation
10. Introduction to Economic Regulation
11. Alternatives to Regulation in the Market: Public Enterprise and Franchise Bidding, with an Application to Cable Television
12. Optimal Pricing
13. Incentive Regulation
14. Dynamic Issues in Natural Monopoly Regulation: Telecommunications
15. Regulation of Potentially Competitive Markets: Theory and Estimation Methods
16. Economic Regulation of Transportation: Surface Freight and Airlines
17. Economic Regulation in the Energy Sector
18. Regulation in the Financial Sector
III: Health, Safety, and Environmental Regulation
19. Introduction to Health, Safety, and Environmental Regulation
20. Valuing Life and Other Nonmonetary Benefits
21. Environmental Regulation
22. Product Safety
23. Regulation of Workplace Health and Safety
24. Behavioral Economics and Regulatory Policy
Summary
Questions and Problems
Index
