Preface

• Pages: 9-10

ix

PREFACE

Market power is one of the essential concepts of antitrust law. At its

core, antitrust policy is aimed at preventing firms from improperly

obtaining, retaining, or utilizing market power. Although a plaintiff can,

in some cases, win an antitrust case without showing that the defendant

has or could obtain market power, those situations are the exception

rather than the rule. As a result, the ability to determine if a firm or group

of firms has or could obtain market power is an essential skill for every

antitrust attorney.

The Market Power Handbook is designed to provide an overview of

the fundamental market power issues that arise in antitrust cases. It

attempts to offer an accessible description of the existing economic

literature, including how that literature relates to the legal issues that

arise in litigated cases and agency investigations, updating the discussion

and references from the original edition. Where possible, the book

identifies emerging issues which will shape future law.

Chapter I frames the discussion by explaining the various definitions

of market power that have been used by economists and courts, including

the distinction between market power and monopoly power. Chapter II

summarizes the varying market power standards that are applied under

the federal antitrust statutes. Chapter III introduces the fundamental

economic doctrines related to market power, including the economic

theories of perfectly competitive markets and of monopoly.

With that background, the Handbook turns to the realities of building

a market power analysis. Chapter IV describes the role market power

plays in market definition, and Chapter V discusses the measurement and

interpretation of market shares and concentration as well as other

empirical approaches for measuring market power. Chapter VI provides

an overview of market power analysis as applied to markets that present

special challenges, including differentiated product markets, cluster

markets, and network industries. Finally, Chapter VII describes the

analysis of barriers to entry.

The Handbook is the product of many dedicated lawyers and

economists. Mary Coleman and Bruce Hoffman coordinated the editing

and drafting of this book. The following economists and lawyers worked

under their leadership to draft it: