Preface

Pages9-10
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:

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