United States Department of Justice, Antitrust Division Public Roundtable Series on the Relationship between Competition and Regulation, Third Roundtable – on Anticompetitive Regulations: Comment of the Global Antitrust Institute, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University

Abstract

This Comment is submitted to the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), Antitrust Division Public Roundtable Series on Competition and Deregulation, Third Roundtable On Anticompetitive Regulations. The Global Antitrust Institute's Competition Advocacy Program applauds the DOJ for acknowledging the limitations of price regulation and the unintended consequences that can arise when competitive forces are displaced. We discuss three aspects of government price controls to regulate competition: (1) the social costs of price regulation in a market economy, (2) the problematic history of price regulation and its consequences, and (3) examples of modern price regulation and the role of antitrust.

Keywords: price, regulation, antitrust, natural monopoly, market failure,

JEL Classification: K21, K23, L11, L43, L51