Further Reflections On Antitrust And Wealth Inequality

By Daniel A. Crane

Drawing on earlier work, Crane debunks that claims that lax antitrust enforcement exacerbates wealth inequality. The assumption that antitrust violations generally involve wealth transfers from comparatively poorer consumers to comparatively wealthier shareholders fails to capture many of the countervailing effects of market power exercises and antitrust enforcement. Although some antitrust violations are regressive, others are progressive, and the general effect is too compl