Download This PaperThe Quest for Behavioural Antitrust: Beyond the Label Battle, Towards a Cognitive Approach
The Dovenschmidt Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2013, pp. 77-88
Temi e Problemi no. 15 - Italian Competition Authority Working Papers Series
30 Pages Posted: 21 Nov 2011 Last revised: 8 Jan 2014
Date Written: November 21, 2011
Abstract
Over the past decades behavioral economics has gained widespread consensus, and, as a consequence, is affecting many areas of law and economics. Antitrust is currently providing an interesting case-study of this new cultural-academic wave, with a growing number of articles and comments focusing on 'behavioral antitrust'. This paper provides a concise survey of the current state of the art, aiming at better understanding the qualities of the new behavioral approach to antitrust (taking predatory pricing as an explanatory test), and, at the same time, considering its limits. Final considerations are dedicated to the need to go beyond the ongoing 'label battle' in order to set up a credible frame of reference-knowledge to be used when dealing with antitrust, in view of reaching a sound cognitive approach to the discipline.
Keywords: antitrust, predatory pricing, post-war neoclassical economics, behavioral economics, cognitive economics and the law
JEL Classification: B20, K21, L40
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation