The Coming Extinction of Homo Economicus and the Eclipse of the Chicago School of Antitrust: Applying Evolutionary Biology to Structural and Behavioral Antitrust Analyses

54 Pages Posted: 12 Sep 2014

See all articles by Thomas Jeffrey Horton

Thomas Jeffrey Horton

University of South Dakota, School of Law

Date Written: 2011

Abstract

This article argues that the models and lessons learned from evolutionary biology can provide fresh and useful insights regarding structural and behavioral economic competition and antitrust policy. Using an evolutionary biology perspective, this article contends that large economic concentrations such as monopolies and oligopolies are vastly overrated in terms of their overall efficiency and positive impacts on the current economic system and that their dangerous impacts are increasingly underrated. Further, building on the critique of neoclassical economics, this article predicts that Homo economicus will become extinct, and that as Homo sapiens replaces Homo economicus in antitrust analysis, the Chicago School’s antitrust dominance will come to a timely end. Evolutionary biology refutes the Chicagoans’ attempts to justify monopolies and ongoing predatory behavior. Instead, it vindicates the antitrust laws’ framers laudable efforts to flexibly regulate human ethics and economic behavior.

Keywords: Antitrust, Competition, Evolutionary Analysis

Suggested Citation

Horton, Thomas Jeffrey, The Coming Extinction of Homo Economicus and the Eclipse of the Chicago School of Antitrust: Applying Evolutionary Biology to Structural and Behavioral Antitrust Analyses (2011). Loyola University Chicago Law Journal, Vol. 42, No. 3, p. 469, Spring 2011, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2494871

Thomas Jeffrey Horton (Contact Author)

University of South Dakota, School of Law

414 East Clark St.
Vermillion, SD 57069-2307
United States

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