Assessing Potential Competition in Antitrust Markets

In The International Handbook of Competition, Manfred Neumann and Jürgen Weigand (Editors), Edward Elgar, 2nd Edition, 2013, Chapter 10, pages 265 – 306.

41 Pages Posted: 10 Aug 2012 Last revised: 5 Sep 2015

See all articles by Vivek Ghosal

Vivek Ghosal

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research (CESifo)

Date Written: August 9, 2013

Abstract

Antitrust guidelines of the major jurisdictions, to a greater or lesser degree of detail, comment on the likelihood of entry, various factors and barriers that determine entry conditions, and the assessment of actual and potential competition. I note that the treatment of potential competition, and the sunk costs that determine the parameters of such competition, are somewhat under-emphasized. Part of this is probably due to the complexities of assessing the different types of sunk costs, as well as meaningful quantification of the constructs. In this paper, I use the Baumol, Panzar and Willig (1982) contestable markets framework as a guidepost to elaborate on sunk costs and potential competition, and evaluate specific measures of sunk costs. The measures of sunk costs I elaborate, related to entry physical-capital requirements, on are designed to reveal the underlying structural conditions in the market. To complement this approach, I use the Landes and Posner (1981) framework to spell out a methodology that would rely on using market or industry specific time-series data to assess the likelihood and extent of potential competition. While the specifics of sunk costs are to be determined on a market and industry specific basis, this paper provides a set of alternatives that can be used by economists and attorneys in antitrust agencies to assess entry conditions and potential competition. The paper briefly comments on the proposed mergers between Staples and Office Depot (1996) and Volvo and Scania (2000), with an eye towards examining the entry conditions and assessment of potential competition in those markets.

Keywords: antitrust, competition law enforcement, potential competition, contestable markets, sunk costs, barriers to entry, Staples and Office Depot merger, Volvo and Scania merger

JEL Classification: D40, K20, K21, l40, l10, M21

Suggested Citation

Ghosal, Vivek, Assessing Potential Competition in Antitrust Markets (August 9, 2013). In The International Handbook of Competition, Manfred Neumann and Jürgen Weigand (Editors), Edward Elgar, 2nd Edition, 2013, Chapter 10, pages 265 – 306., Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2127459 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2127459

Vivek Ghosal (Contact Author)

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute ( email )

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518-276-3868 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://https://faculty.rpi.edu/vivek-ghosal

Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research (CESifo)

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://www.cesifo.de

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