Confessions of a Nonbeliever: Comments on the Search for Antitrust’s Normative Foundations

Abstract

Richard Markovits’ Welfare Economics and Antitrust Policy is, without a doubt, the most expansive and thoughtful effort to assess antitrust policy from the point of view of welfare economics. Unfortunately, I cannot comment in a meaningful way on the specifics of his analysis because after teaching antitrust for 30 years, I have become a nonbeliever. I do not believe any interpretation of today’s general antitrust policies, or the economics on which they are based, can be reconciled with any known version of “welfare.” The principal reason for this state of affairs is that antitrust scholars and courts cling to goals that are misguided and theories that have not evolved despite an avalanche of information now available that strongly suggests, if not proves, that there is little connection between standard antitrust goals and welfare. Thus, with great reluctance, I question whether the analysis found in Richard’s Welfare Economics and Antitrust Policy is worth the effort or ultimately gets us anywhere. My inkling is that Richard realizes this too.