IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/revind/v54y2019i4d10.1007_s11151-019-09688-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Misguided Assault on the Consumer Welfare Standard in the Age of Platform Markets

Author

Listed:
  • A. Douglas Melamed

    (Stanford Law School)

  • Nicolas Petit

    (University of Liege
    University of South Australia
    Stanford University)

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss whether the consumer welfare (CW) standard needs to be replaced or revised in order for antitrust law to deal effectively with the economic challenges of the platform economy. We argue that both the general and platform-specific assaults on the CW standard are misguided, that the CW standard is capable of addressing the economic concerns that critics have raised, and that the proposed alternatives would make things worse—not better.

Suggested Citation

  • A. Douglas Melamed & Nicolas Petit, 2019. "The Misguided Assault on the Consumer Welfare Standard in the Age of Platform Markets," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 54(4), pages 741-774, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:revind:v:54:y:2019:i:4:d:10.1007_s11151-019-09688-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s11151-019-09688-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11151-019-09688-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11151-019-09688-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Richard N. Langlois, 2018. "Hunting the Big Five: Twenty-first Century Antitrust in Historical Perspective," Working papers 2018-01, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics, revised Apr 2018.
    2. Paul Belleflamme & Martin Peitz, 2018. "Inside the Engine Room of Digital Platforms: Reviews, Ratings, and Recommendations," Working Papers halshs-01714549, HAL.
    3. Oliver Hart & Jean Tirole, 1990. "Vertical Integration and Market Foreclosure," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 21(1990 Micr), pages 205-286.
    4. Philippon, Thomas & Gutierrez, German, 2018. "How EU Markets Became More Competitive Than US Markets: A Study of Institutional Drift," CEPR Discussion Papers 12983, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. Phillip E. Areeda, 1972. "Antitrust Laws and Public Utility Regulation," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 3(1), pages 42-57, Spring.
    6. Lawrence J. White & Jasper Yang, 2017. "What Has Been Happening to Aggregate Concentration in the U.S. Economy in the 21st Century?," Working Papers 17-03, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics.
    7. Posner, Richard A, 1975. "The Social Costs of Monopoly and Regulation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 83(4), pages 807-827, August.
    8. Michael A. Salinger, 1988. "Vertical Mergers and Market Foreclosure," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 103(2), pages 345-356.
    9. Barak Y. Orbach, 2011. "The Antitrust Consumer Welfare Paradox," Journal of Competition Law and Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 7(1), pages 133-164.
    10. Salop, Steven C & Scheffman, David T, 1983. "Raising Rivals' Costs," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(2), pages 267-271, May.
    11. Jean Tirole, 1988. "The Theory of Industrial Organization," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262200716, December.
    12. Paul Belleflamme & Martin Peitz, 2018. "Inside the Engine Room of Digital Platforms: Reviews, Ratings, and Recommendations," Working Papers halshs-01714549, HAL.
    13. Federico, Giulio & Langus, Gregor & Valletti, Tommaso, 2018. "Reprint of: Horizontal mergers and product innovation," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 590-612.
    14. Federico, Giulio & Langus, Gregor & Valletti, Tommaso, 2018. "Horizontal mergers and product innovation," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 1-23.
    15. Mr. Federico J Diez & Mr. Daniel Leigh & Suchanan Tambunlertchai, 2018. "Global Market Power and its Macroeconomic Implications," IMF Working Papers 2018/137, International Monetary Fund.
    16. Jan De Loecker & Jan Eeckhout & Gabriel Unger, 2020. "The Rise of Market Power and the Macroeconomic Implications [“Econometric Tools for Analyzing Market Outcomes”]," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 135(2), pages 561-644.
    17. Robert H. Bork & J. Gregory Sidak, 2012. "What Does The Chicago School Teach About Internet Search And The Antitrust Treatment Of Google?," Journal of Competition Law and Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 8(4), pages 663-700.
    18. A. P. Lerner, 1934. "The Concept of Monopoly and the Measurement of Monopoly Power," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 1(3), pages 157-175.
    19. Germán Gutiérrez & Thomas Philippon, 2018. "How European Markets Became Free: A Study of Institutional Drift," NBER Working Papers 24700, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Susana Silva & Isabel Soares & Oscar Afonso, 2021. "Assessing the double dividend of a third-generation environmental tax reform with resource substitution," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(10), pages 15145-15156, October.
    2. Miller, Tracy, 2021. "Evaluating Arguments for Antitrust Action against Tech Companies," Annals of Computational Economics, George Mason University, Mercatus Center, May.
    3. Nicolas Petit & David J Teece, 2021. "Innovating Big Tech firms and competition policy: favoring dynamic over static competition [Patterns of industrial innovation]," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 30(5), pages 1168-1198.
    4. Yannis Katsoulacos & David Ulph, 2023. "Choosing legal rules or standards in antitrust enforcement: A proposal for extending and facilitating the use of the decision‐theoretic approach," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(4), pages 1876-1894, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cavalleri, Maria Chiara & Eliet, Alice & McAdam, Peter & Petroulakis, Filippos & Soares, Ana & Vansteenkiste, Isabel, 2019. "Concentration, market power and dynamism in the euro area," Working Paper Series 2253, European Central Bank.
    2. Villegas-Sanchez, Carolina & Díez, Federico & Fan, Jiayue, 2019. "Global Declining Competition," CEPR Discussion Papers 13696, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Javier D. Donna & Pedro Pereira, 2024. "Structural Presumptions for Non-horizontal Mergers in the 2023 Merger Guidelines: A Primer and a Path Forward," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 65(1), pages 303-345, August.
    4. Mr. Federico J Diez & Jiayue Fan & Carolina Villegas-Sánchez, 2019. "Global Declining Competition," IMF Working Papers 2019/082, International Monetary Fund.
    5. Aquilante, Tommaso & Chowla, Shiv & Dacic, Nikola & Haldane, Andrew & Masolo, Riccardo & Schneider, Patrick & Seneca, Martin & Tatomir, Srdan, 2019. "Market power and monetary policy," Bank of England working papers 798, Bank of England.
    6. Laurent Linnemer, 2000. "When Backward Integration by a Dominant Firm Improves Welfare," Working Papers 2000-42, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    7. Bonfiglioli, Alessandra & Crinò, Rosario & Gancia, Gino, 2021. "Concentration in international markets: Evidence from US imports," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 19-39.
    8. Zava Aydemir & Stefan Buehler, 2002. "Estimating Vertical Foreclosure in U.S. Gasoline Supply," SOI - Working Papers 0212, Socioeconomic Institute - University of Zurich.
    9. Tommaso Bighelli & Filippo di Mauro & Marc J Melitz & Matthias Mertens, 2023. "European Firm Concentration and Aggregate Productivity," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 21(2), pages 455-483.
    10. Belleflamme,Paul & Peitz,Martin, 2015. "Industrial Organization," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107687899, January.
    11. Díez, Federico J. & Fan, Jiayue & Villegas-Sánchez, Carolina, 2021. "Global declining competition?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    12. Committee, Nobel Prize, 2014. "Market power and regulation (scientific background)," Nobel Prize in Economics documents 2014-2, Nobel Prize Committee.
    13. Bruno Larue & Olivier Bonroy, 2009. "Seemingly Competitive Food Retail Regulations: Who Do They Really Help?," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 57(3), pages 305-324, September.
    14. Anderton, Robert & Jarvis, Valerie & Labhard, Vincent & Morgan, Julian & Petroulakis, Filippos & Vivian, Lara, 2020. "Virtually everywhere? Digitalisation and the euro area and EU economies," Occasional Paper Series 244, European Central Bank.
    15. Harro van Heuvelen & Leon Bettendorf & Gerdien Meijerink, 2020. "Markups in a dual labour market: the case of the Netherlands," CPB Discussion Paper 410.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    16. Joze Damijan & Jozef Konings & Aigerim Yergabulova, 2020. "Increasing market power in Slovenia: Role of diverging trends between exporters and non‐exporters," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(5), pages 1327-1345, May.
    17. Donna, Javier D. & Pereira, Pedro & Trindade, Andre & Yoshida, Renan C., 2020. "Direct-to-Consumer Sales by Manufacturers and Bargaining," MPRA Paper 105773, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/6q707l4svn8k3bt630nhgdqgdu is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Moresi, Serge & Schwartz, Marius, 2023. "Product innovation with vertical differentiation: Is a monopolist's incentive weaker?," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    20. Gérard Gaudet & Ngo Van Long & Antoine Soubeyran, 1999. "Upstream-Downstream Specialization by Integrated Firms in a Partially Integrated Industry," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 14(4), pages 321-335, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:revind:v:54:y:2019:i:4:d:10.1007_s11151-019-09688-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.