TY  - JOUR
AU  - Philipson,Tomas J.
AU  - Posner,Richard A.
TI  - Antitrust in the Not-For-Profit Sector
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 12132
PY  - 2006
Y2  - April 2006
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12132
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12132.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Tomas Philipson
Irving B. Harris Graduate School
of Public Policy Studies
University of Chicago
1155 E. 60th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
Tel: 773/502-7773
E-Mail: t-philipson@uchicago.edu

Richard Posner
United States Court of Appeals
E-Mail: Richard_Posner@ca7.uscourts.gov
AB  - Despite the conceptual differences between for-profit and non-profit firms stressed in conventional economic analyses of the non-profit sector, U.S. antitrust law generally does not distinguish between these two organizational forms. This paper argues that the same incentives to restrain trade exist in the non-profit sector as in the for-profit sector. Altruistic firms benefit from exploiting market power, just as non-altruistic ones do, even when they would price below cost without regard to competition. Therefore, promoting competition is socially valuable regardless of the particular objectives of producers, and the fact that antitrust law does not distinguish between the two sectors is efficient.
ER  -