Anti-Competition Regulation
Business History Review 93, no. 4 (2019): 701
Posted: 12 Mar 2020 Last revised: 15 Apr 2020
Date Written: December 31, 2019
Abstract
Looking across the long twentieth century, this article tracks the rise and fall of one form of anti-competition regulation: the certificate of public convenience. Designed to curb “destructive competition” in certain industries, such as transportation and banking, certificate laws prevented firms from entering those industries unless they could convince regulators that they would satisfy an unmet public demand for goods or services. This history highlights how lawmakers used similar techniques in governing infrastructure and finance—two fields that are not often studied together. It also shows that state regulation both prefigured legal change at the federal level and then lagged behind it, suggesting that different dynamics have been in play at each level of governance in devising competition policy over the last century.
Keywords: competition, regulation, consumer credit, finance, infrastructure, regulated industries, small-sum lending, 20th century, federalism, United States
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Anne Fleming (Contact Author)
Georgetown University Law Center ( email )
600 New Jersey Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20001
United States
HOME PAGE: http://www.law.georgetown.edu/faculty/anne-fleming/