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Publications
Publications
  • 2019
  • Working Paper
  • HBS Working Paper Series

U.S. Antitrust Law and Policy in Historical Perspective

By: Laura Phillips Sawyer
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:37
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Abstract

The key pieces of antitrust legislation in the United States—the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 and the Clayton Act of 1914—contain broad language that has afforded the courts wide latitude in interpreting and enforcing the law. This article chronicles the judiciary’s shifting interpretations of antitrust law and policy over the past 125 years. It argues that jurists, law enforcement agencies, and private litigants have revised their approaches to antitrust to accommodate economic shocks, technological developments, and predominant economic wisdom. Over time an economic logic that prioritizes lowest consumer prices as a signal of allocative efficiency—known as the consumer welfare standard—has replaced the older political objectives of antitrust, such as protecting independent proprietors or reducing wealth transfers from consumers to producers. However, a new group of progressive activists has again called for revamping antitrust so as to revive enforcement against dominant firms, especially in digital markets, and to refocus attention on the political effects of antitrust law and policy. This shift suggests that antitrust may remain a contested field for scholarly and popular debate.

Keywords

Antitrust; Trusts; Restraint Of Trade; Merger; Cartel; New Deal; Harvard School; Chicago School Of Law And Economics; Post-Chicago; Law; Competition; Policy; Vertical Integration; Horizontal Integration; Acquisition

Citation

Phillips Sawyer, Laura. "U.S. Antitrust Law and Policy in Historical Perspective." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-110, May 2019. (Revised September 2019.)
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More from the Author

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    Introduction

    By: Laura Phillips Sawyer and Herbert Hovenkamp
    • 2019
    • Faculty Research

    Voting Trusts and Antitrust: Rethinking the Role of Shareholder Rights and Private Litigation in Public Regulation, 1880s to 1930s

    By: Naomi R. Lamoreaux and Laura Phillips Sawyer
    • April 2019
    • Faculty Research

    A Note on U.S. Bankruptcy Law: Individuals, Firms, and Sub-State Entities

    By: Laura Phillips Sawyer
More from the Author
  • Introduction By: Laura Phillips Sawyer and Herbert Hovenkamp
  • Voting Trusts and Antitrust: Rethinking the Role of Shareholder Rights and Private Litigation in Public Regulation, 1880s to 1930s By: Naomi R. Lamoreaux and Laura Phillips Sawyer
  • A Note on U.S. Bankruptcy Law: Individuals, Firms, and Sub-State Entities By: Laura Phillips Sawyer
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