A Modest Enterprise

Abstract

This article discusses The Antitrust Enterprise by Herbert Hovenkamp. While generally praising the book for its refreshing style, its recognition of antitrust's institutional limits, and its efforts to simplify antitrust doctrine, the article ultimately criticizes it as unnecessarily wedded to neoclassical economics. The piece discusses similarities between Hovenkamp's ideas and Chicago school economics, as well as Hovenkamp's apparent skepticism of post-Chicago thinking. Ultimately, the article calls for a more dramatic reimagination of antitrust's role, arguing that neoclassical economics should not be the frontline arbiter of competition policy. Instead, the author urges returning antitrust to its former prominence through the use of distributional and deontological goals, post-Chicago economic methods, and a willingness to contemplate antitrust and regulation as holistic bodies of law.

Keywords: antitrust, law & economics

JEL Classification: K21, L40, K00