The task of antitrust is to identify and prohibit those forms of behavior whose net effect is output-restricting and hence detrimental. —Robert Bork, The Antitrust Paradox
No field in the industrial organization literature has been as well plowed as the relationship between concentration and profitability. . . . Despite its bulk, the literature fails to inform us how to interpret its main findings. . . . If concentration and profitability are indeed related, what market process produces the relationship? The traditional answer has been that high concentration facilitates collusion . . . Unfortunately, this answer does not logically follow from the usual evidence, so its acceptance by economists and practitioners of antitrust policy is little more than an act of faith.
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