EMPIRICAL-EVIDENCE ON A SPECIAL-INTEREST-GROUP PERSPECTIVE TO ANTITRUST

While the antitrust laws claim to serve the public interest, they are as susceptible to the influence of special-interest groups as are any public policies. This paper extends the empirical literature regarding the special-interest theory of antitrust. Our additional empirical ev idence addresses some of the shortcomings in previous approaches. In p articular, we conduct a more rigorous statistical examination. This pa per separates two crucial issues. First, what happened to prices and o utput from 1880 to 1900, prior to and following passage of the Sherman Act in 1890? Second, what do these empirical results mean for the ori gin, history, and development of antitrust?