Book Review: The Treatment of Market Power: Antitrust, Regulation and Public Enterprise

• Date: 01 September 1977
• DOI: 10.1177/0003603X7702200313
• Published date: 01 September 1977
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

William G. Shepherd, The Treatment

of

Market Power:

Antitrust, Regulation and Public Enterprise, New York:

Columbia University Press (1975), 326 pp.,

$16.

At a time when the rallying cry of politicians is

for

less

government regulation and bureaucracy,

it

is provocative to

encounter a book such as this one

that

calls for more. A

graduated tax on profits based on market shares; a govern-

ment funded bank which discriminates against oligopolists;

placing raw materials and land rights under common

carrier

status; public dissemination of disaggregated information on

business production, profits and costs; asurtax based on a

firm's involvement in the defense industry; temporary take-

overs

of

large firms lacking in managerial quality by a public

investment bank; and

tax

incentives for divestiture with

possible restitution to small shareholders (but not

large)-

these

are

only a

part

of the total regulatory treatment pro-

posed in this volume.

William G. Shepherd's The Treatment of Market

PO'Wer

proffers both diagnosis and prescription. Those familiar with

the author's earlier work will not be surprised by his survey

()f the boundaries of the monopoly problem and his conclu-

sion

that

the American economy

(at

least in the market

for

goods and financial capital) is significantly distorted from

a social ideal. Shepherd also evaluates the relative efficacy

of three possible medicants: (1)

antitrust

enforcement; (2)

public utility regulation ; and (3) what used to be called

socialism but which the author dubs "public enterprise."

Since books on the monopoly problem

are

not uncommon,

an appropriate concern is what differentiates this volume

from others. Enumerating the distinguishing facets seems

a workable way of discharging areviewer's descriptive duty.

Interspersed in the depiction I shall take the liberty to diag-

nose

parts

of the author's diagnosis.

The first item to note is

that

Shepherd endeavors to apply

cost-benefit analysis both to the phenomenon of market power

733