Given the increase in large scale mergers throughout the world, this book addresses the growing problem of restricted competition through collusion and the perennial debate surrounding the use of government subsidies for industries to further national interests. The aims of the book are threefold, firstly, to elucidate the antecedents of competition policy in the US and Europe and to demonstrate how far a convergence of principles has developed. Secondly, to outline the theory of industrial organization as a major tool to devise an appropriate policy, and thirdly, to discuss the practice of competition policy in the US, individual European countries and the EC as a whole, in terms of collusion, mergers and vertical restraints. Manfred Neumann comprehensively explores the economic arguments that justify the need for competition policy. He considers the historical development of competition policy and the relationship between competition policy and the objectives of...
