Foer, Albert A. --- "The Goals of Antitrust: Thoughts on Consumer Welfare in the US" [2006] ELECD 538; in Marsden, Philip (ed), "Handbook of Research in Trans-Atlantic Antitrust" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006)

Book Title: Handbook of Research in Trans-Atlantic Antitrust

Editor(s): Marsden, Philip

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845421816

Section: Chapter 21

Section Title: The Goals of Antitrust: Thoughts on Consumer Welfare in the US

Author(s): Foer, Albert A.

Number of pages: 28

Extract:

21 The goals of antitrust: thoughts on
consumer welfare in the US
Albert A. Foer1


In that each nation with a formal competition policy sooner or later must
attempt to define the objectives of its policy, it is useful to make several
observations about the course of US antitrust that will establish the frame-
work for this chapter.
First, there is currently no clear consensus as to whether all or some of
the various goals that have been advanced for antitrust in the US are mutu-
ally compatible, whether one goal should prevail, or, if one should prevail,
how it should be defined in the particulars.
Second, over time, three distinctly different types of goals for antitrust
have been advanced, which I will categorize as (1) making economics work
for the electorate (political goals); (2) making the most of what we have
(productive efficiency) and distributing it optimally (allocative efficiency)
(together, static efficiency goals); and (3) making the pie grow larger
(dynamic efficiency goals).
Third, establishing a goal or the priority of multiple goals is not a once-
for-all-time decision, but rather reflects a temporary consensus that is likely
to morph over time to accord with changing political and economic reali-
ties, advancing knowledge and general fashions in political and economic
thought. It is, in short, a product not merely of economic theorizing, but of
political economy.
In the opening section of the chapter, I will comment on how the US
came to the seeming anointment of one ...