Microsoft, Monopolization, and Network Externalities: Some Uses and Abuses of Economic Theory in Antitrust Decisionmaking
54 Pages Posted: 30 May 2009
Date Written: May, 29 2009
Abstract
This article, published in 1995, analyzes the use of the concept of network externalities in the Antitrust Division's first antitrust case against Microsoft. That case resulted in a consent decree that, among other things, prohibited Microsoft from imposing per processor licenses of its Windows operating system. The article challenges the claim that the practices at issue in the case were more likely to be harmful or long-lived because of the presence of network externalities in the market for computer operating systems.
Keywords: antitrust, network effects, microsoft, monopolization
JEL Classification: D42, D62, K21, L12, L41
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation