Suchergebnisse

This volume addresses a variety of topics where economic concepts are intertwined with important legal and policy issues in North America and Europe. Five articles involve analyses of competition issues, including economic plus factors in price fixing cases, the impact of refusals to deal on product quality, and market definition for intermediate goods. There are also articles on legal -cost allocation and patent hold ups, the strategic use of licensing commitments, and cost sharing's impact on bankruptcy. Finally, there is a very detailed empirical analysis of the monetary cost of raising children, which has implications for policies of the United States Department of Agriculture.

Legal and economic analyses overlap and interact in many areas. Recent U.S. Supreme Court and lower court decisions on class action lawsuits clearly focus on the critical role that economic analysis plays in determining the outcome of class actions. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes and Comcast Corp. v. Behrend have made national headlines, raising the bar in class certification for showing common impact and preponderance through expert testimony. These decisions have turned on the adequacy of the analyses put forth by expert economists, finding the analyses of the plaintiffs' economists to be insufficient. The decisions will have significant implications for use of expert testifiers in class certification and in estimation of monetary damages, presenting challenges to both attorneys and economists in antitrust and other class actions. This book focuses on the changing landscape of class action law and its interaction with the economic analysis of key issues in class actions. Articles examine the elements of class action law from diverse viewpoints, featuring defendant and plaintiff perspectives, concerning domestic and international law, and written by lawyers and economists.

This book focuses on the changing landscape of class action law and its interaction with the economic analysis of key issues in class actions. Articles examine the elements of class action law from diverse viewpoints, featuring defendant and plaintiff perspectives, concerning domestic and international law, and written by lawyers and economists.

The dual antitrust goals of predictable law enforcement and accurate decisions in individual cases have been in conflict for decades. There are three dimensions to this conflict. First, there may be insufficient information on how the courts and enforcement agencies interpret the antitrust statutes. Second, the enforcement agencies may not use consistent standards to evaluate actual and potential antitrust cases. Third, antitrust guidelines may differ significantly from case law.Unfortunately, attempts to improve one dimension of antitrust policy generally create conflicts elsewhere. Thus, the search for better antitrust decision making in individual cases has made antitrust counseling more complex and expensive. Over time, standards have evolved at different rates at the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and the courts, and inconsistencies among these three decision‐making bodies have further complicated the task of antitrust counseling. In this environment, improved and updated information on antitrust standards can potentially be very valuable to the business community.

This volume of Research in Law and Economics contains articles that address important legal and economic developments in the areas of healthcare, intellectual property and labor settlements, competitive effects, cartel overcharges, and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission ("FTC"). Four of the articles were initially presented at a conference on healthcare competition in Washington, D.C., which was sponsored by the American Antitrust Institute, this journal, and Navigant Economics. These articles explore practices that are under challenge in pharmaceuticals, where the Federal Trade Commission has been extremely active, as well as issues involving hospital and health insurance mergers. They are followed by a long and detailed discussion of the current and historic role of economists and economic analysis at the Federal Trade Commission. The next two articles analyze different aspects of the French economy, pre-trial labor settlements and the impact of e-commerce on franchisees. The volume ends with three technical economics articles one on "upward pricing pressure", one on estimating price increases in cartel cases, and one critiquing a "meta-analysis" of research on the effectiveness of U.S. merger regulation. Taken together, these articles raise questions about appropriate competition policy, how to evaluate settlements and other firm behavior, and where economics and competition policy are headed.