Private antitrust litigation: procompetitive ... - r. preston mcafee

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By rp mcafee · 2005 · cited by 17 — makes such private litigation quite attractive. private firms will generally pursue antitrust actions when it is in the private.
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1Private Antitrust Litigation: Procompetitive or Anticompetitive? R. Preston McAfee, Hugo M. Mialon, and Sue H. Mialon* December 1, 2005 Abstract The antitrust laws are intended to permit procompetitive actions by firms and deter anticompetitive actions. We consider firms’ incentives to use the antitrust lawsuits for strategic purposes, in particular to prevent procompetitive efficiency-improvement by rival firms. Our main result is that, ceteris paribus, smaller firms in more fragmented industries are more likely to use the antitrust laws strategically than larger firms in concentrated industries. * R. Preston McAfee, Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 ([email protected]). Hugo M. Mialon, Department of Economics, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322-2240 ([email protected]). Sue H. Mialon, Department of Economics, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322-2240 ([email protected]). 2I. Introduction The antitrust laws were put in place to pro...