I am delighted to announce that registrations for the conference co-organized by the University of Utrecht School of Law and the International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE) are now open. This conference entitled Dynamic Competition and Online Platforms: Evaluating Recent Government Reports will be held in Paris on December 4 and will have for focus to examine the merits and drawbacks of the spate...Read More
I was recently invited by Concurrences (thank you!) at the French Parliament to assess the need to retool antitrust law for digital issues. We had a very nice exchange among the panel that I would like to thank for opening up many new avenues of research. I also very much enjoyed the format – a real discussion...Read More
I am very pleased to add one Nobel laureate to my “Antitrust Conversations”: Vernon L. Smith. Vernon has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002 for “having established laboratory experiments as a tool in empirical economic analysis, especially in the study of alternative market mechanisms.” According to the Nobel Committee, he has “laid...Read More
I asked European academics (and friends) specializing in competition law to send me the list of their three favourite articles ever written in the field, and to explain their choice. It’s nothing easy (at all), but you’ll find their contributions right below. Thibault Schrepel @ProfSchrepel **** Thibault Schrepel (VU Amsterdam/Stanford University) 1. Friedrich A....Read More
In Thinking, Fast and Slow (2013), Daniel Kahneman (Nobel recipient, 2002) devotes a chapter to what he calls “heuristic questions.” See for yourself: “A remarkable aspect of your mental life is that you are rarely stumped. True, you occasionally face a question such as 17 × 24 = ? to which no answer comes immediately to mind,...Read More
I spent last week in Brazil, where I was invited by the International Chamber of Commerce to discuss blockchain and antitrust. The event has been very informative, a great success! I warmly recommend you to go to the 2nd edition of the Brazilian Competition Day next year. I also took advantage of my stay in São Paulo...Read More
Friends, over the last several weeks, I’ve discussed my article entitled “Antitrust Without Romance” using videos. It has been a fun (and weird) experience. Whether you’d like to learn about the romantics, or to visit Amsterdam, you’ll find them all at the links below: Antitrust needs public choice Populism at antitrust agencies The newest trend in antitrust:...Read More
Here’s the seventh and final video of the series dealing with the article entitled “Antitrust Without Romance” (to be downloaded over here). This post discusses a simple idea: antitrust law is not a statement. Antitrust law uses economic variables, but it does not mean that its application is to be fully justified by the latter, indeed, its legal roots...Read More
Here’s the sixth video of my series dealing with the article entitled “Antitrust Without Romance” (to be downloaded over here). This post discusses the invisible hand; not the one of Adam Smith, but the one protecting top officials’ personal interests through institutional flaws. I am here calling for three types of reforms to ensure that antitrust agencies work for the greatest...Read More
Here’s the fifth video of my mini-series dealing with the article entitled “Antitrust Without Romance” (to be downloaded over). This post discusses the independence of antitrust agencies. A lot has been written on the subject, showing that they are, maybe, not ‘so’ independent, because, among other things, they are tied to the parliaments & governments which are funding...Read More
Here’s the fourth video of my series dealing with the article entitled “Antitrust Without Romance” (to be downloaded over here). This post discusses the use of moral concepts in antitrust law, and I’ll take fairness as an example showing that antitrust law is (1) ineffective, (2) counterproductive and (3) outside the rule of law when it does...Read More
Here’s the third video of the short mini-series dealing with my article entitled “Antitrust Without Romance” (to be downloaded over here). This post discusses a trend that is growing in antitrust circles: the demand for the creation of rules applicable to all, taken on the basis of micro-practices committed by a few. First, let’s stress the overall economic trends...Read More
Here’s the second video of the short miniseries dealing with my most recent article, “Antitrust Without Romance” (to be downloaded over here). In this paper, I have studied the extent to which populism thrives within antitrust, and to this end, I have analyzed all of the speeches given by the EU commissioner for competition, the three...Read More
Friends, I’m glad to introduce a series of short videos dealing with my most recent article, “Antitrust Without Romance” (to be downloaded over here). The first deals with public choice theory and explains why it’s needed in antitrust. Public choice was introduced in the late 50s and democratized by James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock...Read More
Dear friends, I have the distinct pleasure of introducing my newest working paper entitled “Antitrust Without Romance” in which I discuss the extent to which the romantics are taking over antitrust law. To this end, I analyzed all the speeches given by US and EU Commissioners (you’ll find numerous graphs) and showed that they are building on populist...Read More
