Dynamic Antitrust Discussion Series: “Antitrust Paradigm Shift”

Antitrust reformers are advocating for paradigm shift in which antitrust enforcement would no longer focus only on rectifying harm but also seek to prevent harm from occurring in the first place. But what would this paradigm shift entail for companies, efficiency, and innovation? How would it integrate dynamic competition concerns? Professor Jonathan Baker’s book The Antitrust Paradigm: Restoring a Competitive Economy (Harvard University Press, 2019) critiques the current antitrust paradigm in which enforcement only occurs ex post facto and proposes how it should be changed. Professor Baker’s recommendations build on extensive experience in antitrust laws and their economic assessment.

ITIF and Competition Policy International hosted the sixth in a series of discussions on “dynamic antitrust,” in which Aurelien Portuese, ITIF’s director of antitrust and innovation policy, sits down with leading scholars and antitrust enforcers in Washington, Brussels, and elsewhere to discuss the path forward in making antitrust a foundation for innovation. Portuese and Baker will debate the implications of the paradigm shift in antitrust policies that he and other advocates are calling for.