Antitrust Economics Meets Antitrust Psychology: A View from the Firms

Many theoretical and empirical studies have examined the effects of antitrust policies on competition from the perspective of consumer welfare. In contrast, this paper examines antitrust policy impacts by exploring the perspective of firms subject to varying degrees of antitrust exposure. Specifically we draw upon a large, firm-level, worldwide survey of firms that allows us to address fundamental questions regarding the magnitude of anticompetitive abuses - as perceived by firms - and the consequence of the establishment of competition policies on these perceptions. Thus, while traditional antitrust economics seeks to collect data on market structure, firm conduct and policy interventions in markets to gain insights into the role of competition policies, this paper adopts the novel, essentially psychological, approach of examining the magnitude of anticompetitive threats as perceived by firms and how these perceptions vary depending on their market and policy environments.