Budzinski, Oliver --- "Modern Industrial Economics: Open Problems and Possible Limits" [2011] ELECD 343; in Drexl, Josef; Kerber, Wolfgang; Podszun, Rupprecht (eds), "Competition Policy and the Economic Approach" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Competition Policy and the Economic Approach

Editor(s): Drexl, Josef; Kerber, Wolfgang; Podszun, Rupprecht

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848448841

Section: Chapter 6

Section Title: Modern Industrial Economics: Open Problems and Possible Limits

Author(s): Budzinski, Oliver

Number of pages: 28

Extract:

6. Modern industrial economics: open
problems and possible limits
Oliver Budzinski

1. INTRODUCTION

The advantages and disadvantages of an economic approach to competi-
tion law are currently discussed remarkably vividly among economists,
legal scholars and also political scientists. It can hardly be doubted that
the design and application of competition law must be informed by
up-to-date knowledge about the underlying economics of competition.
However, it should also be clear that competition policy inherently rep-
resents a multidisciplinary issue, and legal as well as political arguments
cannot be neglected either. In this complex situation, the controversy
about an economic approach to competition law actually does not refer to
the question of using economics at all. The question is whether competi-
tion policy should embrace more strongly modern mainstream industrial
economics as its sole or dominant economic influence.
In this context, the editors of this volume asked me critically to assess
the current and future capabilities of this approach and its performance in
specific case analysis.
Specific emphasis is to be put on the remaining open problems and
on possible limits, while recognizing the widely accepted merits of this
approach. Therefore, I address open problems and possible limits as
they have been raised in the literature and the underlying case practice.
In doing so, I scrutinize each issue as to whether (i) it hits this specific
economic approach at all, (ii) it represents a teething problem or (iii) it
has to be considered as a serious limitation. The focus on ...