The Role of Behavioral Economics in Competition Law: A Judicial Perspective

To date, the literature on the role of behavioral economics in the context of competition policy has largely focused on the development of the theory and practice of behavioral economics in the analysis of competition cases. It is also useful, however, to consider how arguments about behavioral economics are likely to be received in a judicial setting.

It will take longer for academic writings on behavioral economics to filter through into the arguments before and judgments of the Tribunal or the High Court than it does in the U.S. courts—indeed that might never happen. But, in fact, what courts have been doing all along may be closer to behavioral economics than to more conventional economic theories of rational behavior.