Antitrust Policy And Inequality Of Wealth

By Herbert Hovenkamp

Why should we use antitrust law as a wealth distribution device when far more explicit statutory tools are available for that purpose? One feature of antitrust is its open-textured, nonspecific statutes, so using antitrust to redistribute wealth may be a way of invoking the judicial process without having to go to Congress or a state legislature. The most defensible goal for the antitrust laws is prohibition of practices that serve to reduce output anticompetitively, which