The Goals of Competition Law Debate and Competition Policy for Labor Markets

In recent years there has been an upsurge of interest in competition policy applied to labor markets. But the development of a coherent competition policy for labor markets requires us to confront an old debate: What is the economic foundation of competition law? We argue that both the total welfare and consumer welfare standards are flawed. An often-proposed alternative (the “protection of the competitive process standard”) lacks a foundation in economic welfare principles and therefore pro