Arbeitspapier

Competition policy with optimally differentiated rules instead of per se rules vs. rule of reason

Both in US antitrust and EU competition policy a development to a broader appli-cation of rule of reason instead of per se rules can be observed. In the European discussion the attempt to base competition policy on a more economic approach is mainly viewed as im-proving the economic analysis in the assessment of specific cases. In this paper it is shown from a general law and economics perspective that the application of rules instead of focus-sing on case-by-case analyses can have many advantages (less regulation costs, rent seeking and knowledge problems), although an additional differentiation of rules through a deeper assessment can also have advantages in regard to the reduction of decision errors of type I and II. After introducing the notion of a continuum of more or less differentiated rules, we show - based upon law and economics literature upon the optimal complexity of rules - in a simple model that a competition rule is optimally differentiated, if the marginal reduction of the sum of error costs (as the marginal benefit of differentiation) equals the marginal costs of differen-tiation. This model also allows for a more detailed analysis of the most important determi-nants of the optimal degree of rule-differentia¬tion. From this law and economics perspective, competition policy should consist mainly of (more or less differentiated) rules and should only rarely rely on case-by-case analysis. Therefore the main task of a more economic ap-proach is to use economics for the formulation of appropriate competition rules.

Sprache
Englisch

Erschienen in
Series: Marburger Volkswirtschaftliche Beiträge ; No. 2006,06

Klassifikation
Wirtschaft
Antitrust Law
Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior: General
Antitrust Issues and Policies: General
Thema
Competition Policy
European Competition Law
Rule of Reason
Wettbewerbspolitik
EU-Politik
EU-Staaten
USA

Ereignis
Geistige Schöpfung
(wer)
Christiansen, Arndt
Kerber, Wolfgang
Ereignis
Veröffentlichung
(wer)
Philipps-Universität Marburg, Fachbereich Wirtschaftswissenschaften
(wo)
Marburg
(wann)
2006

Handle
Letzte Aktualisierung
10.03.2025, 11:45 MEZ

Datenpartner

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Objekttyp

  • Arbeitspapier

Beteiligte

  • Christiansen, Arndt
  • Kerber, Wolfgang
  • Philipps-Universität Marburg, Fachbereich Wirtschaftswissenschaften

Entstanden

  • 2006

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