1. Economics at the FTC: Cases and Research, with a Focus on Petroleum
- Author
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Paul A. Pautler, Louis Silvia, Luke M. Froeb, Mark W. Frankena, and James C. Cooper
- Subjects
Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management ,Economics and Econometrics ,business.industry ,Strategy and Management ,Commission ,Consumer protection ,Focus (linguistics) ,Competition (economics) ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,Petroleum industry ,chemistry ,Vertical restraints ,Management of Technology and Innovation ,Agency (sociology) ,Economics ,Petroleum ,business ,Industrial organization ,Law and economics - Abstract
Economics at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) covers both the antitrust and consumer protection missions. In this year's essay, we focus mainly on the competi- tion-side of the agency. Drawing on a wealth of recent research, we provide descriptive and analytical information about the petroleum industry. Mergers, as always, were a major preoccupation of the FTC, and we discuss a few oil industry mergers as well as one lead- ing litigated case - Arch Coal's acquisition of Triton Coal. Finally, we review the empir- ical literature on the effects of vertical restraints, noting that the literature supporting an animus toward such restraints is surprisingly weak.
- Published
- 2005
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