Competition policy in the information economy

摘要: Many of the so-called industrial nations are indeed experiencing a transition to an information-based economy, in sense that ICE -information, communications, and entertainment -comprises ever-greater share GDP. In this brave new world, economics networks takes on greater importance comparison with traditional economies scale. This paper explores implications shift towards informationand network-based economy for three branches competition policy: (1) mergers, (2) inter-firm cooperation/collusion, (3) unilateral conduct by dominant firms. The general theme is we possess economic tools fashion sound policy information those being used develop refine such policy. illustrated examples from United States, including widely followed case U.S. v. Microsoft. ********************* Forthcoming Foundations Competition Policy Analysis, 2000, Routledge. I thank at Norwegian Authority Oslo, Norway, their helpful comments. Please direct comments suggestions shapiro@haas.berkeley.edu or visit my web site http://haas.berkeley.edu/~shapiro. am deeply indebted co-authors related projects. have learned great deal about Internet, on-line commerce colleague Hal R. Varian, Dean School Information Management Systems University California Berkeley. draws our book, Rules: A Strategic Guide Network Economy, Harvard Business Press, 1999. See http://www.inforules.com more information. also relying heavily Michael L. Katz, joint paper, “Antitrust Software Markets,” Competition, Convergence, Microsoft Monopoly, 1999, Kluwer; see http://haas.berkeley.edu/~shapiro/software.pdf.