Economics of Regulation and Antitrust - 3rd Edition - Hardcover

W. Kip Viscusi; Joseph E. Harrington Jr.; John M. Vernon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0262220628 ISBN 13: 9780262220620

Publisher: The MIT Press, 2000

Synopsis

Departing from the traditional emphasis on institutions, this text emphasizes the use of economic theory and empirical analysis to understand regulatory and antitrust policies. Questions addressed include: What are the market failure rationales for, and appropriate form of, government intervention? What does theory show about competition in the presence of a market failure and the implications of government intervention to correct that failure? What do empirical analyses indicate about our regulatory experience and the direction of future intervention?

The third edition addresses many issues that have recently dominated the economic and political landscape. New material reviews the government's case against Microsoft, charges of anticompetitive pricing in NASDAQ and airlines, the blocked Staples-Office Depot merger, and the Telecommunications Act of 1996. This edition also covers the deregulation of the California electric power industry as well as recent deregulatory efforts in bank branching and natural gas transmission. On the social regulatory scene, it covers in detail recent cigarette litigation and the contentious issue of the contingent valuation of natural resource damages, as exemplified in the Exxon Valdez oil spill. New empirical evidence appears throughout the book.

Each part of the text can be used separately for a variety of courses including regulation and antitrust in undergraduate institutions, business schools, and schools of public policy, as well as background for doctoral courses. Exercises are included at the end of each chapter.

About this title

About the Author:

W. Kip Viscusi is the University Distinguished Professor of Law, Economics, and Management at Vanderbilt University.

Review:

Rather than inundate the reader with institutional details that will soon be out of date, this impressive book provides the tools necessary to analyze current and future regulatory and antitrust issues. Its compelling set of contemporary applications should make it appealing to advanced undergraduates and a useful reference for graduate students.

(Michael Greenstone, 3M Associate Professor of Economics, MIT)

How do Viscusi, Harrington, and Vernon do it? Their book keeps getting better and better. It is only 'natural' that they have a monopoly on teaching students, faculty, and policymakers the economics of regulation and antitrust.

(Thomas J. Kniesner, Chair and Krisher Professor, Department of Economics, Syracuse University)

This book is by far the most comprehensive and analytically sophisticated treatment of its subject available. The combination of antitrust with government regulation makes the book especially valuable for any course about the effects of government on the private economy. The book manages to convey both contemporary economic theory and current regulatory practice with uncommon lucidly and without burdening the reader with jargon or legalese.

(Sam Peltzman, Ralph and Dorothy Keller Distinguished Service Professor of Economics, Emeritus, Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago)

About this edition

• Publisher: The MIT Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0262220628
• ISBN 13: 9780262220620
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 896