How the Chicago School Overshot the Mark is about the rise and recent fall of American antitrust. It is a collection of 15 essays, almost all expressing a deep concern that conservative economic analysis is leading judges and enforcement officials toward an approach that will ultimately harm consumer welfare. For the past 40 years or so, U.S. antitrust has been dominated intellectually by an unusually conservative style of economic analysis. Its advocates, often referred to as "The Chicago School," argue that the free market (better than any unelected band of regulators) can do a better job of achieving efficiency and encouraging innovation than intrusive regulation. The cutting edge of Chicago School doctrine originated in academia and was popularized in books by brilliant and innovative law professors like Robert Bork and Richard Posner. Oddly, a response to that kind of conservative doctrine may be put together through collections of scores of articles but until now cannot be found in any one book. This collection of essays is designed in part to remedy that situation. The chapters in this book were written by academics, former law enforcers, private sector defense lawyers, Republicans and Democrats, representatives of the left, right and center. Virtually all agree that antitrust enforcement today is better as a result of conservative analysis, but virtually all also agree that there have been examples of extreme interpretations and misinterpretations of conservative economic theory that have led American antitrust in the wrong direction. The problem is not with conservative economic analysis but with those portions of that analysis that have "overshot the mark" producing an enforcement approach that is exceptionally generous to the private sector. If the scores of practices that traditionally have been regarded as anticompetitive are ignored, or not subjected to vigorous enforcement, prices will be higher, quality of products lower, and innovation diminished. In the end consumers will pay.

The essays collected in this book concern the rise and recent fall of American antitrust. Of the 15 essays, almost all express a deep concern that conservative economic analysis is leading judges and enforcement officials toward an approach that will ultimately harm consumer welfare.

The essays collected in this book concern the rise and recent fall of American antitrust. Of the 15 essays, almost all express a deep concern that conservative economic analysis is leading judges and enforcement officials toward an approach that will ultimately harm consumer welfare.

Reading the book commented will provide an updated view on the current situation of antitrust politics and law in the United States. The book covers a wide spectrum of issues on market behavior and business practices affected by antitrust rules (agreements and vertical restraints , various strategies of incumbents in the market, mergers and acquisitions). All the contributions in the book are a recognition of the triumph of economic analysis as the main methodology in applying antitrust rules. Consequently, this has increased the rigor required to plaintiffs in courts and before administrative authorities to prevail in his claims against practices and business operations considered anticompetitive. According to the book's main thesis, apparently this has provided more freedom to businesses, as the excesses of economic analysis have led to an unjustified reduction of administrative and judicial intervention in these matters: antitrust rules and resources underutilization by authorities have been detrimental to consumer welfare.

The most important book on antitrust ever written. It shows how antitrust suits adversely affect the consumer by encouraging a costly form of protection for inefficient and uncompetitive small businesses.