Time-Series Models for Estimating Economic Damages in Antitrust (and Other) Litigation: The Relative Merits of Predictive versus Dummy-Variable Approaches

Economic damages can arise from a variety of bad acts: a breach of contract, a patent violation, an oil-spill, or a price-fixing conspiracy, for examples. The calculation of economic damages involves the description of a “but-for world.” The but-for world implies a set of economic values-such as profits or quantities or prices-that would have prevailed but-for the alleged bad acts. These but-for values become the basis for calculating damages.

A but-for worl