Book Review: Antitrust Economics

• Author: John J. Siegfried
• Published date: 01 December 1987
• Date: 01 December 1987
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0003603X8703200410
• Subject Matter: Book Review

The Antitrust Bulletin/Winter 1987

Antitrust Economics

Roger D. Blair and David L. Kaserman

Homewood, Ill.: Richard D. Irwin, Inc. (1985),483 +xvii pp.

Reviewed by John J. Siegfried, Department

oj

Economics,

Vanderbilt University

1071

This is the book antitrust economists have been waiting for.

It

is

an economist's antitrust economics book. Blair and Kaserman

demonstrate how powerful are the tools of microeconomics for

analyzing market failures caused by imperfectly competitive mar-

ket structure or anticompetitive businessconduct. They substitute

rigorous analytical methods for what is frequently "analysis by

story." Many economists are going to adopt this book for their

antitrust economics classes. Blair and Kaserman will corner the

instructional market. The question then will be:

"Do

the authors

of this book have market power and if so, should the FTC bust

this trust?"

This clearly written book is extremely persuasive of the power

of graphical microeconomic analysis for sorting out the welfare

benefits and costs

of

various rules and regulations promulgated

by antitrust statute, enforcement decisions, and judicial interpre-

tation. The authors use the competitive market outcome as the

standard

of

comparison. They lead students through an analysis

that compares static equilibrium before and after either particular

changes in market structure or rules and regulations that affect

strategic business practices. They show how economic analysis

can help us organize our thoughts and maintain focus on the

secondary effects and tertiary effects of rule changes that occur

when, in pursuit of their goals, the affected parties react to the

changes.

Antitrust Economics can be used with students who have had

an excellent microeconomics principles course (and remembered

© 1988by Federal LegalPublications, Inc.