ADVANCED TOPICS IN TRADE POLICY
TRADE AND COMPETITION

CD35 Syllabus                                                                       Course Structure Index
Professor Armando Rodriguez    

International Competition Policy

Spring 1998

Instructor: A.E. Rodriguez
tel: 713-651-3480
email: armando_rodriguez@notes.pw.co

Objective:  The course has at least two primary objectives.  First, to familiarize you with the ongoing debate on international competition policy.  Second, to show you how to analyze markets.  To accomplish these objectives first requires a review of micro-economics.  We will then learn the basics of industrial organization.  Industrial organization is the core economics component of competition analysis.  With this economics foundation, we will then learn how to analyze markets via a structured competition policy analysis.  This method’s applicability reaches beyond antitrust and will serve you well in litigation or in general economic analysis.  After a brief review of related topics in competition policy, such as intellectual property and antitrust, the last portion of the course will consist of three case studies.

Grades: At the end of the lectures I will hand out a take-home exam.  The exam will have 10 questions, which you have to answer to complete the course.  Exam questions will draw from the lectures and the assigned reading.  I expect thorough concise essay answers to these question.  I will be looking for good analysis based on sound theory.  And above all, a critical perspective.  The exam will be due towards the end of the semester. 

Syllabus & Reading List

International Competition Policy

I.  Overview

A.  The Policy Goals

B.  The Task at Hand

II.  Elements of Competition Policy

            A.  Industrial Organization: A Primer

B.    The Practice of Antitrust

                        1.  Product & Geographic Market Determination                     

Coate & Rodriguez (1997)

                        2.  Concentration Statistics

                        3.  Entry

                        4.  Competitive Effects

                        5.  Efficiencies

                                    Fingleton, et al (1996)

                                    Lawrence (1996)

                                    Singleton (1997)

            C.  The “New” Thinking

                        Peritz (1997)

III.  National Trade Strategies and International Trade Policy

A.  Theory Underlying the Policy Goals

B.  The Early Policy Debate

                  Weiner (1997), First (1997); Hachigian (1997)

            C:  Is Competition Policy Any Different In Transition & Developing Economies?

IV.  Other Topics

C.   Antirust & Anti-Dumping

                        Finger & Fung (1994)

D.   Antitrust & Intellectual Property

                        Tom & Newberg (1997)

                        Langenfeld

IV.  Case Studies

I.        McDonnell-Douglas Boeing

II.                         Rodriguez (1997)

                        Antitrust (1997)

II.  The Cola Wars: The Venezuelan Version

Jatar & Tineo (1997)

Rodriguez & Williams (1998)

III.  Antitrust Brazilian Style: The Anheuser-Busch Antartica Merger

                        www.mj.gov.br/cade    (Antarctica and Anheuser Busch)

Readings

Antitrust, “Conflict & Cooperation: Meeting the Challenge of Globalization” Fall 1997.  

Boner, Roger., “Antitrust and State Action in Transition Economies,” Antitrust Bulletin (forthcoming,1998).

Bliss, Cristopher ., “Trade & Competition Control,” in Jagdish Bhagwati and Rober E. Hudec, eds. Fair Trade and Harmonization: Prerequisites for Free Trade? Vol.1 (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1996) 41-117. 

Coate, Malcolm B. & A. E. Rodriguez, The Economic Analysis of Mergers (Monterey, CA: CTCD: 1997).

Fingleton, John, Eleanor Fox, Damien Neven & Paul Seabright., Competition Policy and the Transformation of Central Europe (London: CEPR1996).

Fox, Eleanor M., “International Antitrust: Against Minimum Rules; For Cosmopolitan Principles,” Antitrust Bulletin (forthcoming,1998).

Kovacic, William E., “Perilous Beginnings: The Establishment of Antimonopoly and Consumer Protection Programs in the Republic of Georgia,” Antitrust Bulletin (forthcoming,1998).

Lebron, David W., “Lying Down with Procrustes: An Analysis of Harmonization Claims,”  in Jagdish Bhagwati and Rober E. Hudec, eds. Fair Trade and Harmonization: Prerequisites for Free Trade? Vol.1 (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1996) 41-117. 

Palim, Mark R.A., “The Worldwide Growth of Competition Law: An Empirical Analysis,”  Antitrust Bulletin (forthcoming,1998).

Peritz, Rudolph J.R., “Some Realism About Economic Power in a Time of Sectoral Change,”  Antitrust Law Journal V.66 No.1 (1997).

Rodriguez, A.E. & Mark D. Williams., “Recent Decisions by the Venezuelan and Peruvian Agencies: Lessons for the Export of Antitrust,” Antitrust Bulletin (forthcoming,1998).

Scherer, F.M., Competition Policies for an Integrated World Economy (Washington DC, Brookings: 1994).

Tavares de Araujo, Jose & Luis Tineo., “Harmonization of Competition Policies Among Mercosur Countries,” Antitrust Bulletin (forthcoming,1998).

Tom, Willard K. & Joshua A. Newberg, “Antitrust and Intellectual Property: From Separate Spheres to Unified Field,”  Antitrust Law Journal Vol.66 No.1 (1997).