TY  - JOUR
AU  - Edlin,Aaron
AU  - Farrell,Joseph
TI  - Freedom to Trade and the Competitive Process
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 16818
PY  - 2011
Y2  - February 2011
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w16818
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w16818.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Aaron Edlin
The Richard W. Jennings '39 Endowed Chair
University of California, Berkeley
Department of Economics and School of Law
Berkeley, CA   94720-7200
Tel: 510/642-4719
Fax: 510/642-3767
E-Mail: edlin@econ.berkeley.edu

Joseph Farrell
Department of Economics
UC, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA  94720-3880
E-Mail: farrell@econ.berkeley.edu
AB  - Although antitrust courts sometimes stress the competitive process, they have not deeply explored what that process is. Inspired by the theory of the core, we explore the idea that the competitive process is the process of sellers and buyers forming improving coalitions. Much of antitrust can be seen as prohibiting firms’ attempts to restrain improving trade between their rivals and customers. In this way, antitrust protects firms’ and customers’ freedom to trade to their mutual betterment.
ER  -