Some Observations on Claims That Rising Market Power Is Responsible for U.S. Economy Ills and That Lax Antitrust Is the Villain

This paper evaluates the recent literature claiming that the U.S. economy has generally become less competitive causing the U.S. economy to perform poorly and that lax antitrust policy is one important reason for the decline in economic performance. Although there certainly are empirical facts requiring further study, I conclude that the evidence does not support calls for dramatic changes in antitrust policy.

By Dennis Carlton¹

I. INTRODUCTION

There has been an outpouring of scholarly a