Two Brattle-Authored Articles Nominated for the 2024 Antitrust Writing Awards
Two Brattle-authored articles have been nominated for the 2024 Antitrust Writing Awards, which are presented annually by Concurrences and the George Washington University Competition Law Center to honor the best in antitrust commentary. The Brattle authors are up for a “Best Article” award in the Business (General Economics) category and the Academic (Mergers) category.
While the Awards Jury will select one winner in each subcategory, readers are encouraged to vote for their favorite overall academic and business articles for the Readers’ Choice Awards in the two respective categories. Voting is anonymous and open online through Friday, April 5.
Winners will be announced at the Antitrust Writing Awards Ceremony on Tuesday, April 9, 2024. View Brattle’s nominated business and academic articles on the Concurrences website, and learn more about them below.
Business Article
Subcategory: General Economics
Principal Dr. Bin Zhou and Senior Associate Dr. Patrick Holder coauthored “The Proper Measure of Profits for Assessing Market Power” for the Spring 2023 issue of Antitrust Magazine. In the article, the authors describe how to calculate economic profit and the economic rate of return using firm financial data and outline key economic issues when considering whether a given level of economic profit may be reflective of the presence and exercise of market power. They also make a number of recommendations for how to properly use accounting data to assess a firm’s market power, particularly when the firm in question has significant intangible assets.
Academic Article
Subcategory: Mergers
Director of Global Development James Keyte authored “The Draft Merger Guidelines: Interpretive Guidance or Ideological Advocacy?,” which appeared in the July 2023 issue of the Antitrust Law Journal. The article assesses the proposed Draft Merger Guidelines (DMG) – jointly released by the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission in December 2023 – against current case law, the 2010 Horizontal Mergers Guidelines (2010 HMG), and the 2020 Vertical Merger Guidelines (2020 VMG).
In the article, Mr. Keyte discusses why the DMG receives a relatively high score on transparency; a medium score on new learning and analytical techniques (for example, for market definition and unilateral effects); and a disturbingly low score on keeping Section 7 guidance within current legal standards and principles.
